Body of man feared drowned in Lata Tembakah found

JERTIH - A father’s strong intuition that his son's body was at the third tier of the cascading waterfall of Hutan Lipur Lata Tembakah, Hulu Besut near here, proved to be accurate when the victim’s remains were found by a search and rescue (SAR) team this morning.

The body of Abdul Wahab Mat Sulaiman, 27, was found at 8am by Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) personnel who joined the SAR operations, about 700 metres from where he was believed to have fallen, on the fifth tier of the waterfall, on Thursday.

The victim's father, Mat Sulaiman Dollah, 58, believed that his son’s body was at the bottom of the third tier of the waterfall, following the discovery of his son's shirt and machete sheath at the same location, although some believed that the victim's body may have been washed away further.

"Early yesterday morning I stumbled upon a snake the size of an adult's finger and a foot long, on the bank of the waterfall; the snake then went into the water where my son's body was found today. The presence of the strange-looking snake strengthened my hunch.

"My son’s body was found floating on the edge of a rock by SAR members who went up to the area starting at 7 this morning. I would like to thank everyone involved in the search operations to locate my son since Thursday evening,” he said when met at the Besut Hospital Forensic Unit here today.

Meanwhile, Besut district police chief, Supt Abdul Rozak Muhammad, said that the victim's body was handed over to the police before being taken to the Besut Hospital Forensic Unit for a post-mortem.

In the incident, on Dec 22, Abdul Wahab, who was a maintenance and cleaning worker for a contracting company in the forest, reportedly fell while repairing a pipeline which was damaged due to flooding at the waterfall. - BERNAMA