PENAMPANG: A man burnt to death when his Proton Saga burst into flames at Donggong township here, early this morning.
It is learnt that the car had been parked by the roadside near Restoran Sinar Mustika when it suddenly caught fire at 4.40am.
The driver was trapped in his vehicle and sustained severe burns to most of his body.
“Based on preliminary investigation, we believe the victim was male. A (possible relative) has come forward to the district police headquarters, but we have yet to identify the victim.
“We have taken a statement from a witness who claims to have seen the fire start at the front of the car, before alerting the Fire and Rescue Department,” said District police chief Deputy Superintendent Rosley Hobden.
He said the car was still on fire when a police team arrived at the scene.
Meanwhile, the Sabah Fire and Rescue Department received a distress call on the incident at 4.43am and despatched nine firefighters to the scene.
The team took about 45 minutes to completely put out the fire, which destroyed 80 per cent of the vehicle.
They retrieved the charred remains of the victim and handed the body over to the police.
The Department is conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
Rosley said the body was sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1’s forensic department for an autopsy, and the car was towed to the district police headquarters for an investigation.