KOTA KINABALU: Two children are missing after their father’s four-wheel drive vehicle was swept away while crossing a bridge over Liawan river as flash floods hit Sabah’s interior Keningau district overnight.
The two children, aged four and six, were inside the vehicle driven by their father who was driving across a flooded bridge to head home to Kampung Dangulad at around midnight on Monday (Nov 9).
The father managed to get out of the vehicle but was unable to get the children out as the swift river currents swept the vehicle downstream, according to witnesses at the scene.
Keningau Fire and Rescue Services Station chief Mudu Pengiran said that they received a distress call at about 12.08am on Tuesday and immediately started carrying operations to locate the vehicle and the children.
“We found the vehicle but the children were not inside, ” he said, adding that they stopped search and rescue operations at 1.30am and resumed searching early in the morning.
The interior Keningau was also hit by flash floods after Sungai Pampang burst its banks.
Mudi said at least two houses along the riverbanks were washed away due to heavy rains upstream.
"So far, at least five other houses have been damaged, ” he said, adding that the flood waters began to recede from 11pm.
He said there were no reports of any casualties along the Pampang river area.
Many of the residents along the Pampang river left their homes after they realised the water levels were rising.
In 1996, more than 200 people were killed and many more missing after their houses washed away when the Pampang swelled during the Greg Storm.
