Three victims remain hospitalised, say police
KUALA LUMPUR: The family of 24-year-old Soo Yu Jian, the sole fatality in the recent explosion at HELP University, gathered in quiet grief yesterday for a private wake attended only by close relatives.
The wake was held at the Nirvana Memorial Park, where a subdued atmosphere prevailed and seating was limited to a small waiting area outside the hall.
Floral arrangements lined the entrance as a digital obituary displayed Soo’s name and service details, while mourners moved in and out silently.
theSun observed the victim’s mother, Margaret Chew, with two older relatives outside the hall at about 2pm before they entered for a closed-door family session.
However, one family member soon approached media personnel to request privacy.
“Please respect our privacy. We would like to keep this mourning session just to ourselves.”
According to the digital obituary display, the wake is scheduled to run from Jan 14 to Jan 16, with the funeral service set for 10am before the cortege proceeds to the Nirvana Crematorium in Shah Alam.
Soo was a third-year mechanical engineering student at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman who was undergoing his industrial training and was due to complete it this week.
Earlier, his mother shared a message on social media expressing sympathy to the family of another victim, first-year law student Reeya Kaur Thandal, while coping with her own grief.
“I pray that Reeya will recover and God will give your family strength and faith at this trying time.
“I am still grappling with my loss and I understand how you and your family must be feeling,” she wrote in a comment responding to a local English daily’s Facebook post.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Fadil Marsus yesterday said three victims remain hospitalised; a 54-year-old contractor supervisor, a 19-year-old student and a 22-year-old Indonesian canteen worker.
Reeya, a law undergraduate, suffered severe injuries, including a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain, and remains unconscious in intensive care.
HELP University chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Paul Chan expressed his condolences yesterday, saying the institution deeply regretted the incident and would prioritise the welfare of those affected.
“We extend our condolences to the family of the worker who died while carrying out maintenance work and we pray for the swift recovery of the injured students.”
The explosion occurred at HELP University’s Bukit Damansara campus on Monday and involved an air-conditioning compressor in the building’s fourth-floor maintenance area.
The Fire and Rescue Department said the blast happened in the compressor room during maintenance work and destroyed about one-third of the space.
Soo’s body was released to his family from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital Forensic Department on Tuesday.
