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Twelve-year-old Maulana Abdul Latif died a horrifying death after he was sucked into a swimming pool drain at the Sports Center (GOR) in Grogol, West Jakarta on Sunday afternoon.
Firman Jayadi, a fireman at the West Jakarta Fire Department, said the tragedy occurred when Maulana and his friends were swimming in the pool.
“I don’t know how, but the victim was suddenly sucked into the pool’s drainage system. But we only received the call early on Monday morning at around 2am,” Firman told Vivanews.
The West Jakarta Fire Department immediately went to the swimming pool to rescue the victim. All of the pool’s water was drained to ease access into the drainage system, but it was far too late by that point.
“At around 7:30am the victim was excavated but already dead,” Firman said.
At this point, Maulana’s death seems to have been caused by negligence in the part of the Grogol Sports Center as they failed to cover up the large drainage hole in the swimming pool. They also took hours to finally call authorities to rescue Maulana.
And, even more outrageously, Maulana could have been saved had an unnamed employee at the sports center rescued him.
Local woman Karsini said Maulana’s three friends immediately ran up to the employee right after Maulana was sucked into the drain. But the employee did not realize the severity of the situation.
“They were shouting, ‘please, sir, our friend went into the pipes.’ And then the employee just said, ‘leave him be, he’ll come out on his own,’” Karsini said.
Maulana did come out eventually, but he was lifeless. It remains to be seen if the sports center or the employee will face criminal charges for Maulana’s death.
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