KOTA TINGGI: A fishing outing among four friends took a tragic turn when one of them drowned in a river at the Gunung Panti forest reserve here today.
District police chief Superintendent Hussin Zamora said the victim in his 40s was an Iban man, who went fishing in the forest near here with his three friends.
He is believed to have fallen into the river and drowned at 1.30pm.
Police have classified the drowning as sudden death as no foul-play is suspected.
Officers from the Fire and Rescue Department's Air Unit were deployed to retrieve the victim's body as rescuers could not carry it out due to rough terrain.
The department's operation commander Mohd Syukri Mohd Yusof said aerial assistance was also deployed to ferry the three survivors to safety.