KOTA KINABALU: A fun outing turned tragic when a 10-year-old girl drowned in a river at Kg Piasau, Kota Belud.
Lysbet Tom Jones was swimming with her three friends on a sunny Saturday. However, she suddenly went missing.
Kota Belud Fire Station chief Muhammad Syazwan Latun said the victim was found drowned yesterday.
He said the weather was clear and the river currents were normal during the incident.
“We are not sure what actually happened as the witnesses are too traumatised to share information,” he said when contacted.
He said they received a distress call at 2.41pm on Saturday, and a search and rescue team was deployed to the scene.
Muhammad Syazwan added that they used the 500m surface rescue, skindive and “wave”’ technique (operations on boats that use the flow of river currents to approach their victims or targets) to search for the victim.
“We also had assistance from the police, marine police and Rela personnel, as well as villagers and health officials.
“We continued our search until 11.30pm on Saturday and operations continued at 8am yesterday.
“The victim was discovered at 8.36am, some 600m from where she was last seen,” Muhammad Syazwan said.
He said the girl was brought to shore and was pronounced dead by medical officials, adding that operations ended at 9.40am.
