The Ship Was Hit By Waves In Bitung Waters, 7-month-old Baby Was Separated From His Mother's Arms And Carried Away By The Current

The SAR team is trying to find a missing baby in the waters of Bitung, North Sulawesi. (ANTARA/HO- Public Relations of the Manado Basarnas)

JAKARTA - A sad story came from Manado. When a seven-month-old baby is lost in the middle of the sea due to the fierce waves.

This incident occurred on Tuesday, March 8 yesterday. The "Pakura" type boat carrying four passengers, Irwan Monoarfa (49), Atika Puspita (21), Muhamad Tampilang (3), and Ilhman Tampilang, aged seven months, was hit by the waves and overturned.

Information from the victim's witness, Atika Puspita, said that she and her grandfather and two children wanted to travel to Lembeh Island.

They departed from Madidir Beach. Unfortunately, before reaching the destination the boat was hit by waves and strong winds so that it overturned in Bitung waters.

"According to the witness, we held our two children, but the waves were high, so Ilham Layarg slipped out of her grip and was carried away by the current, while we held Muhamad Tampilang but unfortunately he couldn't be helped", said Head of National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Manado, Suhri Sinaga, Wednesday, March 9, quoted from Antara.

Received the report, he ordered the members to move to the location to carry out the search,

"The joint SAR team carried out a search on Tuesday, March 8 night with the victim's family and Marine and Coast Guard (KPLP), Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) until the early hours of the morning, but found no signs of the victim", complained Suhri.

Suhri asked every personnel who carried out the search for victims to pay attention to their safety, so that during the search all teams were safe. That, he said, given the rapidly changing weather.

"There are many factors that we don't know about in the field, so we need to improve in terms of vision and joint vigilance. Now the search is on for the second day, hopefully the joint SAR team can find victims as soon as possible", he said.

Today the team is still carrying out a search from the starting point of the drowning victim to the coast for about 1.5 kilometers. According to local fishermen, the ocean currents are heading towards the mainland.