KOTA BARU: A tahfiz student was killed and 11 others were injured when the van they were travelling in crashed into a ditch on Jalan Lapangan Terbang Sultan Ismail Petra in Taman Bendahara, Pengkalan Chepa near here at 11.32am Tuesday (April 18).
The van was ferrying the tahfiz students home from shopping for Hari Raya Aidilfitri clothes at a nearby supermarket.
The victim, identified as Wan Ahmad Izzat Alauddin, 12, died at the scene.
The victim's mother Wan Noor Azilah Wan Sulaiman, 48, who lives in Kampung Tapan, said she found out about the accident through the tahfiz WhatsApp group and rushed to the location.
"When I arrived 20 minutes later, my heart sank when I saw that my son’s body had been covered, and I saw his head was covered in blood,” she said when met by reporters at the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) in Kubang Kerian.
Wan Nor Azilah said the plan was to fetch her son tonight to celebrate Aidilfitri at her grandmother's village in Felda Ciku 7, Gua Musang.
She said Wan Ahmad Izzat was her only child, and the boy was excited to go out to buy baju Raya with his friends when he called her last night.
"I never thought that would be the last time I would be able to talk to him. I am very sad to lose my only child but accept it as fate,” she said.
She added that her son will be buried at the Felda Ciku 7 Muslim cemetery in Gua Musang.
Pengkalan Chepa Fire and Rescue Station chief Supt Alam Nasut Ilias said that the team of firefighters arrived at the scene at 11.45am and found that one victim had died, while 11 other students and the van driver were injured.
All the injured victims were sent to Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II for treatment, while the deceased’s remains were sent to HUSM for a post-mortem. – Bernama
