IPOH: A police corporal is feared to have drowned after he was swept away by strong currents in a deep irrigation canal during a dip with a group of friends along Jalan Utama Changkat Lada near Kampung Gajah today.
Perak Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) assistant director (operations division), Sabarodzi Nor Ahmad said his department received an emergency call at 2.47 pm before firefighters from Kampung Gajah fire and rescue station were dispatched to the location of the incident 16 kilometres (km) away.
It is understood that the 39-year-old victim is an officer at the Melaka Tengah district (IPD) police headquarters and was off-duty to return home for a school reunion.
“The victim was said to have caved in to exhaustion when he struggled to swim to the bank as the swift current swept him away. Rescue personnel were vigilantly walking along the banks in a surface search of the canal where the water depth is estimated to be four metres,” he said in a statement today.
Sabarodzi said the search operation was suspended at 6.50 pm and will resume at 8 am tomorrow.
