Steven Chen
A group of twenty four adventurers comprising of twenty one Singaporeans and three locals including a one-year-old child were stranded for thirty-six hours in the vicinity of Sungai Lembakoh within the Endau Rompin National Park due to flooding of the main jungle track road.
It was reported that the group had been denied permission and was forewarned not to proceed with their planned trip to the national park by the park officials but the adamant group defied the order.
According to the director of Johor National Park, Suhairi Hashim, the park had been closed to the public since December 1 due to bad weather and this has been conveyed to the group concern but they refused to pay heed and proceeded with the journey.
The group entered the park last Saturday in five separate four wheel drive vehicles and failed to return from the park the next day as planned.
Meanwhile, Senior Fire & Rescue officer, Ramli Harun said, they have to seek the assistance of their air unit based in Subang to fly in a helicopter to help with the rescue mission.
All the twenty four stranded victims were successfully rescued by 12.30pm the next day and was reported to be in safe condition.
Efforts to interview the victims were unsuccessful as they were immediately put on a bus heading straight back to Singapore.
The Singapore Foreign Affairs issued a press statement confirming the incident and stated that all the twenty one victims were back safely.
During the rescue operations, several officials from the Singapore Consul office in Johor Bahru were also present to assist in co-ordinating the rescue operations.
The spokesman further said that the Singapore government expressed its appreciation to the Malaysian authorities for their commendable rescue effort.
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