NIBONG TEBAL: Instead of attending classes, a 15-year-old student decided to play truant and join his three friends at the Kam-pung Sanglang Recreation Park near here.

It proved to be a tragic outing as M. Philips Damian from SMK Methodist is feared to have drowned in Sungai Kerian, about 100m away from the park. At press time, the autho-rities are still searching for his body.

A Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said they conducted a search and rescue operation after they received a distress call at 11.47am yesterday.

It is learnt that Philips had gone to the park with his friends in the morning. At about 11am, he went for a dip alone. His friends then heard him shouting for help and alerted a passer-by.-thestar