Ngobak And Fatigue, Jatimulya Teen Drowned In Kalimalang

Sar team conducts search for victims/Antara

JAKARTA - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) bekasi stated a teenager named Rafi Ardika (14) who is known to be a resident of Jatimulya Village, RT 03 RW 05, South Tambun, Bekasi Regency, West Java, drowned while playing water with his friend in Kalimalang River Bekasi.

"The victim could not swim, drowned after being dragged by the river," said BpBD Chief Executive of Bekasi Regency Henri Lincoln in Cikarang, reported antara, Tuesday, April 13.

He said the victim was declared drowned on Monday, April 12 at 3:20 p.m. Officers received a report of the incident 10 minutes later. After getting the report, it immediately checks the location to conduct a search.

Nahas until Tuesday, April 13, the team still has not found any victims. "It has not been found from yesterday afternoon, there is still an investigation using a rubber boat at the point where the victim disappeared," he said.

On the second day of the search for victims, the Bekasi District BPBD team received the help of a joint team from the Jakarta Search and Rescue Office (SAR), Katana Jatimulya, Srigala Bekasi, Hirpala Bekasi, and the families of the victims.

"The search was expanded with the search area enlarged so that the victims were found immediately," he said.

The incident of drowning of the victim began when he was playing with his friend near Bridge III Kalimalang. The victim intended to pull over to the riverbank because he was exhausted but he was unable to withstand the rapid flow of the river and ended up being dragged by the current and drowned.

"The victim was playing water or 'shooting' with three friends, the victim could not swim. It was about 100 meters from the scene. But it was not helped and to date the victim has not been found," Henri Lincoln said.

Jakarta SAR Office Chief Hendra Sudirman said Tuesday morning a joint team conducted a river drain to find the victims.

"We have deployed rescue personnel complete with water SAR equipment to the scene, we pray that we will find the victims soon," he said.

The search for victims is done by dividing the search area. First, from the point of incident to as far as three kilometers the search was conducted by the search and resque unit (SRU) team first, then the second SRU was tasked with visually combing through the land route from the scene up to two kilometers away.

"And the third SRU conducts dives when conditions allow with a radius of 10 meters around the scene," said Hendra Sudirman.