A boy drowned in artificial pond

A boy drowned in artificial pond

JAKARTA (JP): A six-year-old boy has been found dead in an artificial pond in the Gading Serpong housing complex in Tangerang.

Ilham Masyar was found by residents living close to the housing complex after his father asked them to join the search for the missing child. The body was found in water four meters deep.

Some eyewitnesses said that they saw Ilham with three friends going to the pond to swim and catch small fish.

The pond is a location where people have quarried sand for years. The water, reaching a depth of ten meters, is rainwater.

Ilham, the first grade student at the Nurul Islam elementary school, was the seventh victim drowned in the pond in the past three years, local inhabitants said.

Ilham's father, Udin, who lives on Jl. Bidar I, Kelapa Dua housing complex in Curug, Tangerang, not far from the pond, told The Jakarta Post he regretted the developer did not put any signs up around the pond.

"The developer should have posted security guard around the pond to prohibit people and children from swimming or fishing in it," said Joni, another resident of Bumi Kelapa Dua housing complex.

PT Jakarta Baru Cosmopolitan, the developer of Gading Serpong housing was not available for comment yesterday.

"I have no authority to discuss the situation," said Kumala Dewa, an executive of the firm. (bsr/sur)