Pray for flash flood victims

PRAYERS FOR KHO: A member of the public praying after she placed a bouquet of flowers at the spot where Kho slipped.

KUCHING: Concerned members of the public here placed bouquets of flowers along Jalan Batu Lintang where missing 19-yearold Kho Ying Qi was believed to have slipped.

Some were seen of fering prayers for her and the late Herman Sihas @ Mohd Sulaiman Abdullah who tried to save Kho when she slipped and fell into the swollen drain.

The tragic incident, which happened during heavy downpour and flash floods in Kuching last Thursday morning, has been the talk of the town.

As of press time yesterday, the body of Kho, a sixth former of SMK Batu Lintang, has yet to be found.

The incident took place around 7am when Kho was leaving her school after classes were cancelled due to the flash flood.

According to a source, her Toyota car stalled along a flooded back road from her school leading to Jalan Rock, prompting her to call her mother for advice.

She was then told to abandon the vehicle and wait at a nearby bus stop for her mother to pick her up, and was making her way there when she slipped and fell into the swollen monsoon drain.

Despite not knowing how to swim, 28-year-old Herman from Lundu jumped into the raging water together with an off-duty fireman in a desperate, but ultimately failed, bid to save Kho.

Herman’s body was only discovered two days later during the third day of search, some three kilometres from where he went missing.

The body was spotted floating beneath a bridge at Lorong Sungai Maong Ulu 3 at 8.45am by Civil Defence Department personnel and was sent to the mortuary for a post mortem.