Villagers discovered the body of a nine-year-old girl, Arlina Jabar, on Thursday (Oct 5), four days after she and her older sister were believed to have drowned in the Pegalan river in Sabah’s interior Keningau district. The remains of Arlina were found near Kampung Lingkudou at 6.15pm, 13.55km away from where she had gone missing. The body has been handed over to the police for further action after firemen and villagers found her sister Azila’s body on Tuesday (Oct 3), around 1.7km from where they were last seen. Chief of Keningau Fire and Rescue, Sharudy Delamin, confirmed that their team responded promptly to the discovery and conducted a search operation encompassing a 7km radius for the past four days. Various methods were employed, including a water surface search, riverbank scouring by the police and Civil Defence Force, in addition to firemen and villagers.
The tragic incident happened when the siblings were playing along the river bank in Kampung Lingkudou. Arlina accidentally fell into the river at around 4.30pm on Monday (Oct 2). Azila bravely jumped in to save her sister but both were swept away by the strong current. The firemen were alerted to the incident at 5.07pm on the same day.
In an unrelated case, a two-year-old boy named Aydden Lo Jie Lie, who had been reported missing by his family members in an orchard near their home at Kampung Batu 27, Jalan Keningau-Tenom, was found safe on Friday (Oct 6). The firemen located Aydden at 10.13am, just over an hour after the report was made. The child was found approximately 2km from his house and promptly returned to his family.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
