Fun picnic trip turns fatal at Rompin waterfall

ROMPIN: A picnic outing for nine friends at Air Leleh waterfall in Bukit Ibam turned fatal yesterday when one of them drowned. The body of 25-year-old Muhammad Azreen Othman was discovered by divers at 8.50am today, submerged 12 metres deep, six metres from where he was last seen. District police chief Superintendent Sharif Shai Sharif Mondoi reported that Azreen and eight others, including five women from Felda Keratong, had set out for the waterfall at 2pm the previous day.

They entered the water 30 minutes later, with Azreen remaining alone while his friends rested on the banks at 3.30pm. All of them were in the water around 4pm when Azreen lost his grip on a rope tied between trees and was swept away by a strong current towards a rapid. Two of his friends managed to grab his hands, but the current and slippery riverbed carried him away.

A picnicker alerted the Bukit Ibam police station at 5.40pm, triggering a search and rescue operation at 6pm. Civil Defence Force personnel and Fire and Rescue Department divers conducted the search, with two divers finding the body at 8.30am today. The body was taken to Muadzam Shah Hospital for a post-mortem examination at 9.55am. The incident has been classified as sudden death, according to Superintendent Sharif Mondoi.