October 27, 2009
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - One Malaysian schoolgirl died and two other children were missing after the suspension bridge they were crossing during a camping trip collapsed, police said Tuesday.
Nineteen other students who plunged into the river below were rescued after the accident Monday evening in northern Perak state, where they had been among 298 children on a camping trip.
"From reports from the teachers on the scene we believe that there were 22 children on the bridge when it collapsed," said Kampar police chief Aziz Salleh.
"Nineteen of these students have been rescued and from the lists we have been given, three are missing," he told AFP.
"We have found one Indian girl drowned and another two are still missing so we are carrying out search and rescue operations to find the two students."
Salleh said that most of the 19 children who survived had been rescued by their teachers, and dismissed earlier unconfirmed reports that the death toll was feared to be much higher.
One survivor, 12-year-old K. Mathivanan, said the children were playing and jumping on the bridge before it began swaying, and then suddenly gave way.
"Suddenly we were thrown into the river and I managed to grab a rope hanging off the collapsed bridge. The river currents were very strong but I managed to pull myself to safety," he told state news agency Bernama.
Mohammad Safri Abdul Rafar, a teacher who was nearby, said he was alerted by the screams of students coming from the river.
"I jumped over the fence and dived into the river and managed to rescue three or four students. The current was very strong and I almost drowned and was forced to return to the bank," he told Bernama.
He said he later jumped into the river again to rescue another five students.
Perak's chief minister Zambry Abdul Kadir, who travelled to the scene late Monday, said the suspension bridge had just been installed.
"The hanging bridge was only just put in... and it's obvious that it collapsed because the metal girders gave way. We want to know if the bridge was built to specifications or not," he said according to Bernama.
