TODDLER DIES AFTER FALLING INTO FLOOD WATERS IN TUMPAT HOUSE

PASIR MAS, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- A one-year-old boy drowned after falling from into flood waters in his house in Kampung Cherang Melintang, Tumpat on Thursday.

Kelantan police chief Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mamat said the victim was with his mother on the upper floor of their two-storey house, which was affected by the floods.

He said the incident happened at 11.30 pm when the mother noticed the boy was not asleep next to her and found him floating in flood waters on the lower floor of the house.

“The victim’s mother found that the sofa table used to block the staircase to the lower level had been moved," he said in a special press conference at the Disaster Operations Control Centre at the Repek police station here today.

“The mother then called her husband before being helped by neighbours to take her child in a boat to the Kubang Panjang Bridge and subsequently to the Tumpat Hospital where the child was pronounced dead."

Mohd Yusoff said earlier the victim’s family had been instructed to evacuate but did not want to do so.

"This is an example of the stubbornness and negligence of flood victims who refuse to evacuate when ordered. Some people are reluctant to leave their homes, belongings and so on...

"Why don't you want to move when arrangements for housing, food, and so on have already been made? We don't want this kind of behaviour," he said.

Meanwhile, he also said that although the weather forecast predicts the rain will subside today or tomorrow, it should be noted that water will flow downstream, which will affect the areas of Tumpat and Pasir Mas.

The toddler was the third flood victim in Kelantan, in addition to a 35-year-old man who was electrocuted and a 64-year-old man who is believed to have drowned in Machang.

-- BERNAMA