7-year-old Boy Was Attacked By Crocodile While Fishing, Pangkalpinang SAR Team Conducted A Search

A joint search and rescue team in Babel is searching for a boy who was attacked by a crocodile in Muara Pangkalbalam, Pangkalpinang City. (Between/HO- PR of the Pangkalpinang SAR Office)

PANGKALPINANG - Pangkalpinang Search and Rescue Team, Bangka Belitung Islands Province, conducted a search for a seven-year-old boy who was attacked by a crocodile in Muara Pangkalbalam, Pangkalpinang.

"This afternoon we received information about the incident that happened to a girl from Pangkarang who was attacked by a crocodile in the waters of Muara Pangkalbalam and immediately conducted a search around the scene," said Head of the Pangkalpinang Search and Rescue Office I Made Oka Astawa in Pangkalpinang, quoted from Antara, Sunday, 2 Fabruari.

The crocodile attack on the child is estimated to have occurred at around 11.37 WIB while the victim was fishing with his brother around the waters near the pier belonging to Polairud.

While the victim was playing with the sand on the riverbank, suddenly a crocodile pounced and dragged the victim into the water. The victim's family who witnessed the incident immediately reported to Polairud and Basarnas asking for help in search and rescue.

Receiving this information, the Pangkalpinang SAR Office dispatched a search team to the scene, and together with a joint team consisting of Rescuer Kansar Pangkalpinang, ABK KN SAR Karna, Ditpolairud Polda Babel, Satpolairud Polres Pangkalpinang, Laskar Sekaban, Saka SAR Pangkalpinang rushed to search for victims.

"We are conducting a joint search using several supporting tools for several rubber boats and DJI Macic 3T drones, with sweeping around the scene," he said.

The joint SAR team carried out the search as much as possible by sweeping the surface of the water using Basarnas' "Rigid Buyancy Boats" (RBB), "Rigid Inflatable Boats" (RIB) Polairud, several rubber boats belonging to potential SAR and air monitoring via drones.

"During the search process, these predators appeared several times and still carried victims, hopefully, the search for victims will soon produce results," he said.