PASIR MAS: A one-year-old boy has drowned after falling from into floodwaters in Kampung Cherang Melintang, Tumpat.
Kelantan police chief Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mamat said the victim was with his mother on the upper floor of their flooded two-storey house.
He said at 11.30pm on Thursday (Nov 28), the mother noticed the boy was not sleeping next to her and she found his body in flood waters on the lower floor of the house.
He said the victim's mother noticed that a sofa used to block access to the staircase had been moved.
"Neighbours used a boat to take the child to the Kubang Panjang Bridge and subsequently to the Tumpat Hospital where he was pronounced dead," he said in a press conference at the Disaster Operations Control Centre at the Repek police station here on Saturday (Nov 30).
Mohd Yusoff said the victim's family had been instructed to evacuate but did not do so.
"This is an example of a stubborn and negligent flood victim who refused to evacuate when ordered.
"Some people are reluctant to leave their homes... arrangements for housing, food and so on have already been made.
"We don't want this kind of behaviour," he said.
Meanwhile, he said rain is forecast to subside over the next two days but noted that water will flow downstream, which will affect Tumpat and Pasir Mas.
The toddler is the third flood victim in Kelantan, after the deaths of a 35-year-old man due to electrocution and a 64-year-old man who drowned in Machang. – Bernama
