KUCHING: When they thought their boat would sink, panicked crew members Mohd Hiki Hasan, 20, and Fairon Azahar, 39, jumped into the crocodile-infested Batang Lupar.
The boat, with a crew of four, was heading to the coastal fishing village of Beladin in the Betong Division when it lost engine power. The strong river current sent it drifting to the bridge. The boat then hit a pillar of the Batang Lupar bridge just before 11pm last night.
The other crewmen — Mohd Rahimi Hasan 30, and Mohd Asri Zaidi, 27 — stayed onboard as the boat did not sink.
When they couldn't find the two who had jumped, they reported the incident to the police who then called in the Fire Department. A search was mounted but it was called off at 1.15am when the current became too dangerous.
As luck would have it, the search-and-rescue team leader Nasir Drahman was informed by the police that Hiki and Fairon had been located.
Fairon had been rescued by villagers from Kpg Beladin, in Meludam, some 200km from here. .
Hiki had drifted with the current before he managed to haul himself up a river bank next to an oil palm plantation.
A plantation security guard sent him to the Pusa ferry jetty at 7am, and informed the police there.