PEKAN: Two young girls drowned in a fish pond near their home in Kampung Merchong yesterday.

Their cousin, Adilah Hani Kamar, 16, spotted the bodies floating in the pond and dragged them out.

Adilah, said her cousins, Nor Amanina Bariah Mohd Tarmizi, 3, and Zalifah Lyana Mohd Zaid Nadwi, 2, had followed their grandmother, Zainah Sulong, 60, to a chalet near the pond about 1.30pm.

She believed they were playing near the pond when Zainah was busy cutting the dead fronds of a coconut tree.

Zainah later left the area thinking that the girls had gone to the chalet where Zalifah's mother, Zalina Nordin, works as a clerk.

"We suspected something wrong when Zalina came home and asked about the girls' whereabouts," Adilah said at the Pekan Hospital mortuary yesterday.--NST