A grandfather’s first trip out of Rompin, Pahang, with his two teenage grandsons ended in tragedy after they were swept away while swimming in a river here and are feared to have drowned.
The two grandsons, Irruwan Rantau, 17, and Rahidi Rantau, 16, had come with their grandfather Hamzah Yahya, 62, and 30 other workers to work on a watermelon farm here.
They arrived last week. It was the first time the brothers, who are from the Jakun tribe, had followed their grandfather out of Rompin, Pahang.
“My two grandsons were eager to help me plant watermelon seeds,” Hamzah told reporters at the scene today. “They came to help me earn a living, but in the end, I lost two grandchildren at once.”
He said the boys’ parents arrived this morning.
Hamzah said the two boys had told him they were going fishing by the river bank. Shortly afterwards, their cousin rushed home in a panic, saying that Rahidi and Irruwan had drowned while swimming.
The cousin, Rosyam Nor, 14, said the three of them had gone to the river to search for worms to use as bait.
“Irruwan invited us to go swimming, I warned him against it because the current was strong, but he insisted on going,” he said. About five minutes later, Irruwan started to struggle in the water and Rahidi jumped in to save his brother, but the strong current swept them away.
Sungai Durian fire and rescue department chief Zulhilmi Baharudin said that a search had not yielded any leads. Strong currents have made the search challenging, he said.
