Pix by Sharifah Mahsinah Abdullah
PASIR MAS: The Fire and Rescue Department has recorded 17 cases of suicides involving people jumping off bridges in the state in the past three years.
Its director Zainal Madasin said from the overall 17 cases, 15 of those people were found drowned while another was rescued and one other person was still missing.
The statistics were recorded since 2021 until yesterday at six bridges in Kelantan.
Zainal expressed the department's concern over the drastic increase in case numbers.
He said the Sultan Yahya Petra bridge recorded the highest number of cases at nine.
This was followed by the Tendong bridge (three) and the Salor bridge (two).
The Tok Bali, Pak Nik Lah and Wakaf King bridges each recorded one case each.
The three cases recorded at the Tendong bridge included a latest case yesterday involving a 43-year-old man.
"Since 2021 until yesterday, we have recorded 17 cases of people jumping off the bridges.
"Three of the cases were reported in 2021, seven cases in 2022 and six cases last year.
"Yesterday's incident at the Tendong bridge was the first recorded this year. We are concerned with the rising number of cases of people committing suicide in this way. Many of them chose to commit suicide by jumping off from a bridge," he told reporters when visiting the Tendong bridge today.
Zainal said the department voiced its concern about the matter to a Kelantan government representative today, and it hoped the latter would find a solution to the problem.
"I told the representative from the state government that we are continually facing such cases. If possible, we would like to suggest for the setting up of iron fence or barrier along these bridges.
"This to prevent people from easily jumping off the bridges," he said.
On the latest operation to locate the missing man, Zainal said the search and rescue operation resumed this morning.
"We have received a missing report at 7.48pm last night and immediately launched the SAR operation.
"The operation involves more than 40 officers from the department and other agencies.
"Apart from our scuba unit, we will also seek the assistance of the K9 unit who will arrive from Subang this afternoon," he added.