13-Year-Old Boy Enjoys Bathing In West Pasaman River Attacked By Crocodiles, SAR Team Conducts Search

Illustration of river estuarine crocodiles. (Unsplash- Joshua J. Totten)

JAKARTA - RA, a 13-year-old boy was allegedly attacked by a crocodile while bathing in the Sikobo River, Sungai Beremas District, West Pasaman Regency, West Sumatra (West Sumatra). The joint SAR team was deployed to search for victims. "The joint team today consisted of the Indonesian Navy, the Indonesian Army, Basarnas, BPBD and the police conducted a search for victims suspected of being attacked by crocodiles this morning," said Basarnas Pasaman Coordinator, Dhio Ulwi Finanda, quoted by Antara on Friday. He said, for the search for victims, his party lowered eight boats. Consisting of one rubber boat belonging to the Indonesian Navy, two Basarnas rubber boats and five community boats. According to him, from the information obtained, the victim was attacked by a crocodile on Thursday, March 30 at around 16.00 WIB.

The information was based on the testimony of witnesses Suprianto and Supar who saw the victim playing on the banks of the river with two colleagues Habib (9) and Wildan (12). Then at around 17.15 WIB the two fellow victims saw a crocodile on the river surface and told the victim that it should not approach the river, but it was ignored by the victim. The two colleagues Habib and Wildan have told them that they saw crocodiles, with the aim that the victim would not jump into the river but the victim even said that what his friend saw was not a crocodile but just a piece of wood.

Setelah itu korban RA ini melompat ke sungai dan langsung kaki korban diterkam oleh buaya tersebut.Kedua rekannya Habib dan Wildan mencoba membantu dengan berusaha memukul buaya dan menarik korban dari mulut buaya tapi tidak berhasil sehingga korban ditarik dan dibawa oleh buaya ke dalam air.Melihat kejadian itu saksi Supriyanto dan Supar juga mencoba mengejar buaya tersebut sambil berteriak meminta pertolongan warga lainnya, akan tetapi korban telah menghilang.

"Currently we are continuing to walk along the river looking for victims. Hopefully, victims will be found soon," he concluded.