KUCHING: A young woman was rescued from probable death after she allegedly jumped off a bridge into a river during a suspected suicide attempt early yesterday.
RESCUED: A shirtless Iswandi helps police and paramedics to carry the woman towards a waiting ambulance.
The incident happened around 3am, when 24-year-old local Iswandi Selik was heading back to his house at Rantau Panjang in Batu Kawah together with a friend.
As the two friends arrived at the Chong Kiun Kong bridge near the old Batu Kawah bazaar, they noticed several members of the public standing on the bridge and pointing towards the river below.
Curious, they stopped and enquired what had happened, and were shocked to learn that a young woman had jumped off the bridge.
According to Iswandi, he immediately made his way to the riverbank to get a closer look and caught a glimpse of the woman, who was clad in a white T-shirt, floating face-up in the water.
“I waded towards her and grabbed hold of her before dragging her back to the riverbank. She was semi-conscious but was still able to talk and told me that she felt pain in her waist,” said Iswandi, when met after the incident.
He added that he knew the river, a tributary of the Sarawak River, was inhabited by crocodiles but the thought of saving the woman was foremost in his mind.
“It was only when I brought her back to the riverbank that I became worried that a croc might attack us,” he said.
Iswandi claimed that he called out to those gathered on the bridge to help him lift the woman to the main road, but that none of them responded. They merely stood there watching, he claimed.
A police team and an ambulance arrived at the scene about half an hour later, and brought the woman, who has not been identified, to the Sarawak General Hospital for treatment.
Police are investigating the alleged attempted suicide bid.