Children aged 6 and 8 drown after parked family car rolls into river

Two Malaysian children died by drowning after their family car rolled into a river on Thursday, the police said.

The two siblings, an eight-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, were inside a car parked at the riverbank near the Sungai Linggi river near Port Dickson on Thursday.

They were accompanied by two adults in their 40s, including a man believed to be their father, Port Dickson police superintendent Maslan Udin said, according to The Straits Times.

“Based on preliminary investigations, the man got out of the car, which was parked below the Tanjung Agas bridge, to have a cigarette, and the car suddenly began rolling towards the river,” he said.

The car’s engine was switched off at the time of the incident, the police said, prompting an enquiry into what led to the car rolling away on its own.

“We need to know if this was caused by a technical problem,” he said, adding that the car will be winched out at low tide.

At the time of the incident, the two children, along with a woman who was identified as a local, were inside the car.

People present at the scene managed to pull the woman free but the children remained trapped in the submerged vehicle’s passenger seats, authorities added.

Teams from the Fire and Rescue Department, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and the Marine Department immediately launched a rescue operation, officials said.

“Medical personnel tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on them, but both were confirmed dead [at the scene],” Mr Maslan Udin said.

The girl’s body was recovered at about 1.24pm, and her brother’s at about 1.47pm, the police said.

The case was initially being investigated under the Road Transport Act, but an investigation has also been opened against the two adults after inconsistencies were found in statements from the adults involved, according to the Malay Mail.

Local reports said the family came from Putrajaya, south of Kuala Lumpur, and had been on holiday in the area for a couple of days.

The police remanded both the man and the woman for questioning, officials said.

Reports said the man had a criminal record including four outstanding cases related to fraud and other crimes.