5 Children Trapped In River Currents Successfully Evacuated, One Person Disappeared

Residents of Cikendi Village, Cikalongkulon, Cianjur and joint officers are trying to find a child who was reported missing by the river while swimming, Monday (1/12/2025). ANTARA/Ahmad Fikri

JAKARTA - The SAR Office of Cianjur Regency, West Java and joint officers managed to evacuate five of the six children who were reported to be trapped by a sudden swift river in Mekarjaya Village, Cikalongkulon District, Monday, while another one was reported missing.

Head of the Cianjur SAR Unit Andhika Zein said that after receiving the report, his party coordinated with joint TNI/Polri officers, BPBD, and the Cianjur Fire Department and PMI Cianjur to help search for victims carried by the river.

"Currently there is a joint TNI/Polri team, officers from the Cianjur BPBD, Cianjur Damkar and PMI volunteers at the location to search for victims who were reported to be carried away by the river current," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, December 1.

Five children managed to save themselves on the edge of the river and were evacuated by a joint team, while another person on behalf of Hasbi (11) was reported to have been carried away while swimming using used tires in the river, whose current was suddenly swift.

As of Monday evening, the search has not yielded any results, especially since efforts to search are limited because the river currents are very swift can threaten the safety of officers and volunteers, so the search process is carried out by walking along the riverbanks.

"We will divide the team in two locations to search for missing victims carried by the river current and drowned by the waves on the southern coast of Cianjur. We hope that a quick search can be carried out to find the victim's body," he said.

Meanwhile, information gathered from local residents, the six children who were still sitting in the middle school were swimming in the river in Cikendi Landeuh Village, Mekarjaya Village, using used tires, at which time the river water was still calm and there was no sign of a strong current.

After a while they were swimming, suddenly the river current quickly turned into heavy, so the six children were dragged as far as a few meters. Five people managed to pull over by holding on to the grass and tree branches.

"The five children were successfully evacuated by residents who heard screams for help. They were stranded across the river holding on to the tree branches. From them, residents received reports that one child was swept away by the current," said an eye witness, Maman (48).

Finding this, residents reported the incident to the Cikalogkulon Police and continued to the Cianjur SAR office and Cianjur BPBD, so officers came to the location to search.