KUALA LANGAT: A technician identified as Lim Geok Hwa, 53, drowned after he was believed to have slipped an fell into the water while doing a ship maintenance work at Sungai Kuala Langat, here, on Monday night.
Kuala Langat Fire and Rescue Department chief Jaslizad Jalil said six rescuers from the Kuala Langat Fire and Rescue Department, six from Malaysia Civil Defence Department, nine marine police and one boat from each agency were deployed for the rescue mission.
Jaslizad said they received an emergency call from the Kuala Langat police station informing about the incident at 1.20am on Tuesday and only managed to start the search operation at 9am as it was dangerous to start operation when it was still dark.
The search and rescue effort on Tuesday was in vain as the rescuers was forced to postpone the operation by sunset as they did not find the body after about 10 hours of searching.
Lim's body was discovered yesterday at 11.15 am not far from the place where he had fallen.
"The operation was resumed yesterday morning and was stop at 11.15 am after we found the victim's body trapped at one of the pontoon boats.
"We believe that the victim drowned because he did not know how to swim as the current was not strong," said Jaslizad.