SUNGAI BULOH: One victim has been recovered from a drowning incident involving five people at Sungai Gasi, near the Paya Jaras army camp here today.
The body, that of a man, was found seven kilometres from where the victims were first swept away.
It was initially reported that seven people had been swept away by strong currents, believed to be triggered by a flash flood, at 5.30pm as they were fishing at the river this evening. The authorities later revised the figure to five.
District police chief Superintendent S. Somu said among the five were two women. Two other men, who managed to swim to safety, reported that their wives were among those who were swept away.
The authorities have launched a search and rescue mission for the two women, aged 31 and 48; a 14-year-old; as well as two men, a 30-year-old Malaysian and a 37-year-old Indonesian.
Their identities have yet to be released.
"Based on the reports, these are the main victims so far. However, we are not ruling out the possibility that there are more victims as there were lone anglers in the area as well.
“So far, these are the main victims but we suspect there were some who had been fishing alone as well," Somu said, adding that police have yet to receive any additional reports of missing persons involved in the case.
He said search and rescue operations have been mounted by the Fire and Rescue Department, police, People’s Volunteer Unit (Rela) and army personnel since 6pm and will continue past midnight.
“There are 70 people from the various agencies involved in the operation. The search will continue throughout the night until the victims are found,” he said.
Somu said families whose loved ones were at the site and had yet to return home, should lodge a police report on their disappearance.
A Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said its personnel are conducting a surface search for the victims, as well as set up an operations centre 8km from where the victims were reported missing.
Meanwhile, a local, Ahmad Nizam Abdul Kadir, said it was unusual for anglers to pick this spot as it is not usually known as a fishing hole.
“I was told that one of the residents here saw the victims being swept away by the waters, which were about two-and-a-half-metres high,” he said.
Another resident, Mohd Suhaimi Kamaruddin ,44, said it is not unusual for the river to suddenly experience a high volume of water.
"Water from Kepong and Damansara converge into this river before it flows to Kuala Selangor and then the sea. No one actually fishes at this river because the water is unpredictable," he said.
