The night of October 3, six divers drowned in an abandoned mining pond in Sepang, Malaysia after trying to save a 17 year old boy that fell in while fishing.  The divers were sucked into a whirlpool caused by currents from heavy rains.  Mohammad Hamdan Wahid, the director-general said that it was the deadliest accident in the history Malaysia’s emergency services department.

The divers were held together by ropes to try to keep them safe together.  Mohammad said, “They had formed a human chain in an attempt to reach a nearby floodgate where they believed the drowned victim was located but one of the personnel missed his footing as they traversed the water.”  That is when they were sucked under and drowned.

The divers were rescued after around 30 minutes of being overtaken by the whirlpool, and all of them were unconscious, and pronounced dead.  A funeral was held the next day for the divers, which brought in around 300 people. The 17 year old boy is still missing.