Feared drowned at building site

28/01/2008 New Straits Times

PETALING JAYA: A 36-year-old lorry driver was feared drowned after a fishing excursion went wrong on Saturday night.

Sabahan Jerry Rambayan had gone to catch fish at an abandoned building site opposite the Giant hypermarket in USJ1, where water had collected.

The Subang Jaya Municipal Council, unable to bear the cost of continuously pumping out the water, had put guppies in the water to curb the breeding of mosquitoes there and Rambayan was believed to have dived into the "pool" to catch the fish.

Witnesses said he disappeared under the water soon after.

At press time, Rambayan's body had not been found and his wife, Rainah Kinsang, 28, and four young children were keeping vigil at the building site, abandoned since 1998, while Fire and Rescue Department divers searched the murky waters.

Council president Datuk Adnan Md Ikhsan, who was also at the site, said there was little the counccil could do if the public did not keep away from danger.

"We have boarded up the area, but people still try to break through. We can't keep pumping out the water, because when it rains, it will fill up again.

"We are doing everything to keep the mosquitoes away," he said, adding that the council was, however, looking at how it could help Rainah and her children.