Falling Into The River, Drunk Man In Balikpapan Lost In The Current

Illustration of drowning (ANTARA)

BALIKPAPAN - Allegedly due to the influence of alcohol, a man in the city of Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, was desperate to jump into a river with heavy currents last Wednesday. As a result, the man who worked as a fisherman on a daily basis was immediately lost by the current.

Responding to the incident, Basarnas Balikpapan immediately deployed a team and equipment to the location of the victim, the last time it was seen in the Manggar River, Manggar Village, East Balikpapan District.

The joint SAR team also deployed two rubber boats belonging to Basarnas and Balikpapan BPBD to comb with a search radius of 1.5 kilometers.

The Commander of Team 1 Basarnas Balikpapan, Dwi Adi Wibowo, said that based on community reports, initially, the victim with the initials MA and aged 27 years was drunk after a drinking party. Furthermore, it was still under the influence of alcohol, then he was desperate to plunge into the Manggar River which had a heavy current.

Local residents who saw the incident had asked the victim to immediately rise to the mainland. However, the victim refused. Not long after, the victim disappeared due to being dragged by the swift currents of the river.

"Information from local residents that he was drunk, it seems like that, in a drunken state he was asked to go up, but didn't want to, finally got angry and continued to swim into the middle of the river," said Dwi.

According to him, the joint SAR team has tried to find the whereabouts of the victim who allegedly drowned due to being swept away by the current, one of which is by searching for victims using sonar equipment.

Then, from 14.00 to 16.00 WITA, the joint SAR team also made efforts to dive to the bottom of the river at a number of points suspected of being the location of the victim.

The joint SAR team also deployed four divers. However, the joint SAR team was constrained by the swift current of the Manggar River and the lack of visibility at the bottom of the river, making it difficult for the SAR team to find the victim's whereabouts. The visibility is only half a meter.

"It's quite thick in the waters below," he concluded.

Until now, it is not known for sure the motive of the victim's reckless action to enter the river.