SRI AMAN, July 30: The search for a missing 47-year-old fisherman who was attacked by a crocodile has been called off after seven days.
The victim, identified as Kong Gindi from Rh Tuntun, Seduku Ili, was attacked by a crocodile at about 9.45am while cleaning his fishing boat with a friend, 52, on July 24.
The state Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) operations centre in a statement revealed today’s search and rescue (SAR) operations led by Sri Aman zone fire chief Ramlan Marajan were divided into four sectors with boats from Bomba, police, Civil Defence Force (APM) and local villagers taking part.
The Bomba team searched as far as 10km along the Batang Lupar river bank up to Kampung Bakong, while the police team covered up to 9km along the Sekupang Lingga river.
The APM team searched along the Batang Lupar river up to the Lingga river for approximately 10km while local villagers searched along the river bank where the incident happened.
However, as the SAR reached the end of its seventh day, they failed to locate Kong.
At 4pm, a discussion between the police, Bomba, APM and the victim’s family was held and it was agreed upon to call off the SAR operations.
However, the victim’s family informed the authorities that they will continue the search on their own, prompting the police and Bomba to advise the villagers to be very careful as there were many crocodiles roaming around the area.
Family members also agreed to inform the authorities if they discovered the victim’s body.
On July 24, Kong and his friend were cleaning the fishing boat when a crocodile appeared, attacked and dragged Kong into the river.
At about 11.15am, villagers reportedly saw Kong’s body with a crocodile resting nearby on the river bank about one kilometer downstream from where he was attacked.
When the villagers tried to approach the crocodile, it dragged Kong’s body back into the river and both were not seen anymore after that.
It was also understood that Kong was wearing a blue shirt, black shorts and rubber boots at the time of the attack. — DayakDaily
