Kluang man saves wife, before being swept away in car by floodwaters

 

Members of the public at the scene where a man is believed to have been swept away by floodwaters at Mile 18, Jalan Batu Pahat-Mersing, Kahang near Kluang. - NSTP/Courtesy of NST reader.

KLUANG: A man is feared drowned after he and the Proton Waja he was driving disappeared when floodwaters swept them away at Mile 18, Jalan Batu Pahat-Mersing, Kahang near Kluang, yesterday.

Kluang district police chief Assistant Commissioner Low Hang Seng said the incident occurred at about 5.30pm when the vehicle driver, Md Rajihan Junaidi, 28, was passing the flooded road stretch with his wife, Khairunnisa Ibrahim, 25.

"According to information in the police report made by Khairunnisa at 10.35pm last night at the Kahang police station, she and her husband (Rajihan) were in the car when it was swept by strong currents to the right side of the of the road," he said in a statement today.

He said Rajihan had managed to break the car window to save Khairunnisa, and the woman was rescued by members of the public, before he himself was swept away by the current, along with the vehicle.

Low said the Fire and Rescue Department launched a search and rescue (SAR) operation shortly after receiving the report, but the worsening weather conditions as well as night time made the SAR operation difficult. – Bernama