KANGAR: Its a very tragic moment for a 16-year-old teenager when he pulled out the body of his cousin from a pond in Kampung Syed Omar here yesterday.
According to Amir Farhan Safar, he had bad feelings when he heard noises coming from a large crowd of villagers who gathered at the pond at about 1.30pm
Amir said he prayed hard that nothing happened to his seven-year-old cousin as he saw the latter standing near the pond earlier.
He dashed from his friend's house to the scene which was about 60m away and saw his uncle fractically shouting for help to save his drowning son and another boy.
Without a second to waste, Amir and other villagers jumped into the 2m-deep pond and searched for the two boys.
It took them about 15 minutes searching for the victims in the muddy water before he managed to grab one of fhem, who happened to be his cousin, at the bottom of the pond.
Choking back with tears, Amir handed over the body clad in long pants to the victim's father who was overwhelmed with emotion.
"My uncle was so weak and looks like about to faint when he saw his son's listless body in my arms.
"I could not hold back my tears when I handed the body to him and part of me still could not believe that he was gone as I just saw his happy face before the incident,"he said when met at the scene here yesterday.
Another victim was found few minutes later by another villager, Mohd Badlishah Abdullah, 18 not far away from the spot where both victims left their shoes.
The victims were identified as Ahmad Rozaimi Rosli and Shahril Amri Ramli, both Year One pupil from SK Padang Kota here.
It was learnt that the duo and another boy came to the pond which was dug about a week before for housing construction.
Located next to padi field, the pond which was actually a deep and large hole filled with rain water, gave the impression that it was not very deep.
A villager nearby, Ruzihan Shahidan,40, said the house owner had chased the boys away from the pond as it was dangerous but the boys return to the place few minutes later.
She said the duo took off their shoes and jumped into the pond, leaving the smaller boy nearby.
"After a while, the smaller boy started to scream and cry for help when the boys failed to emerge from the water,"she said.
Kangar district police deputy chief Deputy Superintendent Zaini Talib when contacted said they received the distress call on the incident at 1.26pm.
The case was classified as sudden death and the bodies were sent to Tuanku Fauziah Hospital.