Body of pupil recovered from rubble - Search continues for missing woman

Grieving dad: Chung Fang crying as he looks at the body of his son Hua Ting which was recovered in Kapit yesterday.

By JACK WONG
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUCHING: Year Six pupil Soon Hua Ting had been spending his long school holidays with his grandmother in Kapit when he was killed in a landslide on Wednesday.

His grandmother Dayang A Dayak, 53, and her other grandson, Frederick Bradley A Peter, 13, were also buried alive in the landslide, which destroyed nine houses in Lorong 1, Kampung Baru Cina.

Kapit acting OCPD Asst Supt Bradeep Sritharan said Soon's body was the third recovered by rescue workers at 2.30pm yesterday.

His remains have been sent to the Kapit Hospital mortuary for a post-mortem.

The boy, who lived with his family in Sibu, a nearly four-hour express boat ride away, came to stay with his grandmother when the yearend school holidays started.

He was due to return home for the new school term later this week.

Some 100 rescue workers, including firemen, policemen and Rela members, were still searching for a missing woman, believed to be Dayang's daughter, who was in her 30s.

Hua Ting's father Soon Chung Fang, 40, wept as his son's body was retrieved from the rubble.

"The last time I talked to him was during the start of the school holidays," said the crane operator, who arrived in Kapit from here yesterday.

Hua Ting is the second youngest among five siblings - four boys and a girl.

The search and rescue operation was sped up yesterday after an excavator was brought in to remove the rubble.

Nearly 80 people from 17 families were made homeless in the landslide, the third to have happened in Kampung Baru Cina.

Search and rescue operations were called off at 6pm and will resume today. One person is still missing.