SIBU: An employee of a wiring company was reported missing and feared to have drowned after falling off the boat he was on in Sungai Batang Igan, Bungan Kecil, in Mukah, about 160 kilometres from here, yesterday’s afternoon.
A spokesman for the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) Operations Centre said search and rescue operations until late afternoon still failed to find the victim, Saffuan Zaffari, 30.
According to him, as soon as the emergency call was received at 2.30pm, the Operational Output Team (PKO) from the Mukah Fire and Rescue Station (BBP) was immediately mobilised to the scene, about 48 kilometres from the station.
“Preliminary information from the public found that at around 2 pm, the boat on which the victim was travelling hit a log that drifted in the river, causing the victim to be thrown out,“ he said in a statement yesterday.
He said the PKO together with the villagers conducted a search within a radius of one kilometre upstream and downstream of the river.
However, as of 6.30pm, the victim was still unable to be found, and the operation was postponed as it got darker. The search will continue tomorrow with the help of several other agencies.
