ALOR STAR: A 16-year-old youth drowned at the Kedah Aquatic Centre at Gunung Keriang here yesterday morning after taking a dive at the swimming pool.
Amirul Mazuan Mazli (pic), 16, had taken his second leap into the pool when the incident occurred at noon.
“We waited for several minutes and when he did not resurface, I dived in the pool and found Amirul struggling in the water.
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“I tried to pull him out but failed,” said Mohd Fadli Che Omar, one of Amirul’s friends who were at the swimming pool with him.
Another friend, Muhd Nizam Fadli, also jumped into the water and with the aid of a long pipe to guide him to the bottom of the 5m-deep pool, he managed to grab Amirul’s hand and pull him up.
A man, who also happened to be at the pool, performed a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Amirul but failed to revive him.
Amirul, Mohd Fadli, Muhd Nizam and five others had gone to the centre at 9.30am yesterday to swim. The centre has three Olympic-size swimming pools, including a diving and public pool.
At noon, the boys decided to dip at the diving pool which was out of bounds to swimmers. The pool was used for the 2006 Sukma diving events.
Amirul, a Form Four pupil of SMJK Keat Hwa, had also told one of his friends to record his dive on the mobile phone for remembrance.
Kota Star CID chief Deputy Supt Fiesal Libertus Abdullah said Amirul and his friends had ventured into the diving pool after spending sometime at the public pool.
Amirul’s father, Mazli Din, 41, said his son did not know how to swim.
“We were surprised when police turned up at our doorstep and told us that Amirul had drowned in the pool,” said Mazli.
