ALOR STAR: "I saw something floating and thought it was a doll, but it turned out to be my granddaughter.
"I pulled her out of the drain and called her name repeatedly, but there was no response. Her face was pale, and her lips had turned blue."
These were words from Mohd Hamidan Hashim when he talked about how he found his granddaughter, Nur Aisha Misya Afifah Abdul Fattah, 2, who drowned in a drain near their house in Lorong Seri, Jalan Langgar, last night.
He said during the incident, he was at work near the Darulaman Stadium when his eldest daughter, Siti Nurfarhana Abdullah, 18, the victim's mother, called him to inform him that her daughter had gone missing. Siti Nurfarhana had believed that her daughter might have fallen into the drain.
Hamidan, 38, said the village was flooded due to an overflow from Sungai Kedah and the high tide at about 3pmyesterday.
"I received a call from my daughter about 4.30pm. I rushed to the spot to look for her but couldn't find her because the water was very deep.
"Some villagers helped by diving to search for her, but to no avail. My granddaughter's body surfaced around 8pm last night," he said when met at the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital Forensic Department here today.
Hamidan described his granddaughter as an active child who was very close to him, and even called him "abah" (father).
He said he had a bad feeling when his daughter called to say that his granddaughter had gone missing.
"This area has never been flooded in the past, but yesterday, when the high tide coincided with the river overflow, it caused flash flooding, and submerged the drain."
"However, I have accepted her death. A day before the incident, she showed unusual behaviour, refusing to eat and staying quiet."
Meanwhile, a villager Yahmin Sairin, 70, said a crowd gathered round 6pm because a child had fallen into the drain.
He tried prodding the drain with a stick to help look for the child, but the water level was two metres-deep.
"The current in the drain was also very strong. I swam in the drain but couldn't find anything. Later, I was informed that the child's body was found around 8pm.
"I built this drain about 12 years ago, so I know its depth, but I never expected the flood to be this deep," he said.
Siti Nurfarhana said at the time of the incident, she was sleeping inside the house, about 30m from the drain.
She had thought her youngest daughter went to her grandmother's house, which is nearby.
She said her eldest three-year-old son was inside the house at the time.
"I felt uneasy, so I called my father before going out to search for her.
"Shortly after, a villager told me that my daughter had fallen into the drain, which was flooded with overflowing river water," she said.
Nur Aisha Misya 's body was sent to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital Forensic Department for further action. She is expected to be laid to rest at the Masjid Al Irfan Muslim cemetery in Derga, Jalan Langgar in the evening