Triple tragedy as girls drown in bid to save child in monsoon drain

Heartbreaking scene: A policeman with several villagers looking at the monsoon drain where the girls drowned in Kepayan, Kota Kinabalu.

KOTA KINABALU: Two young girls jumped into a large monsoon drain in a desperate attempt to rescue a child who had fallen in – but it turned into a triple tragedy when all three drowned at a village near the Kota Kinabalu International Airport here.

The three, aged five, 10 and 12, were believed to have been playing on the edge of the drain at Kampung Bunga Raya in Kepayan when the five-year-old slipped and fell in at about 2.30pm on Monday.