The Search For Palembang Residents Who Drowned On Panjang Beach Bengkulu Will Continue Tomorrow

The joint team temporarily suspended the search for victims from Palembang who were swept away in the Panjang Beach area of Bengkulu City. ANTARA/Anggi Mayasari

BENGKULU - The Bengkulu National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) will continue the search for two victims from Palembang, South Sumatra, namely Zulpan and Rizal who drowned while bathing in the Panjang Beach area of Bengkulu.

"Today we are temporarily stopping the search for the two victims who drowned in the Panjang Beach area and will resume tomorrow," said Head of the Bengkulu Province Basarnas M. Arafah as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, May 2.

Today's search process has not found the whereabouts of the victims, but it is still conducting a search on the beach.

Previously, there were five residents of South Sumatra who drowned while bathing in the Panjang Beach area, namely Zulpan (55), Rizal (35), Asari (35), Saca (30) and Sobran (32).

For the other three victims, namely Asari, Saca and Sobran died and are currently being taken to the funeral home in Palembang using an ambulance.

The incident began when a family of 10 people visited the Panjang Beach area at around 07.30 WIB.

Then, six of them took a shower and without realizing it, the victims were already in the middle of the sea. One victim, Arya (20) managed to survive.

One of the victim's relatives, Sukadi, said the three victims would soon be taken to the funeral home in South Sumatra.

"We groups from Palembang want to visit the Bengkulu family and we are interested in bathing at Panjang Beach. There are three people who died and two people are still being searched," he said.

He admitted that while bathing on the beach, local residents had been reprimanded not to bathe in the area because of the prone occurrence of drowning people.