Remains of Malay victim of landslide claimed by family for burial on Saturday night
The remains of Nurul Azwani Kamarulzaman, one of the victims of the Batang Kali landslide, were mournfully escorted by her large family out of the Sungai Buloh Hospital and were to be buried on Saturday night.
Some 20 family members waited for several hours at the hospital’s Forensic Department for the formal identification process before Nurul Azwani’s family was allowed to claim her body. She is the only ethnic Malay victim of the landslide identified so far.
The other five people who were killed and identified by the authorities were ethnic Malaysian Chinese and included a nine-year old boy.
At least 24 people were killed by the landslide at the campsite at Father’s Organic Farm, at the foot of Genting Highlands, and rescuers were still looking for nine more victims on Saturday evening.
Nurul Azwani’s mother, Madam Siti Esah Hassan, said her daughter was to be interred at the Taman Selaseh cemetery in Gombak, Selangor, on Saturday night.
“The last we saw her was on Wednesday before she left for the camping trip,” Madam Siti Esah said.
It was learnt that Nurul Azwani, 31, worked at the canteen of SJKC Mun Choong, a Chinese primary school in Kuala Lumpur.
A school official said on Friday that some 20 teachers from the school and their family members went on the camping trip.
Hulu Selangor’s district police chief, Superintendant Suffian Abdullah, has urged other family members to come forward to identify those killed in the disaster.
He said none of the bodies had any identification documents on them.
“We urge those with missing family members to come forward and identify them at the Sungai Buloh Hospital. The family members may also lodge a police report,” he told a press conference on Saturday.
The search and rescue operations were split into three zones at the farm: Sector A, Hill View; Sector B, Farm View; and Sector C, Riverside.
He said the focus of the search on Saturday was the upper levels Sector A and Sector B.