by M. Sivanantha Sharma

BUKIT MERTAJAM, MALAYSIA - Two 12-year-old boys kept secret the drowning of a schoolmate until it was coaxed out of one of them one day later.

They were afraid to seek help after seeing the schoolmate disappear into the water while swimming in Sungai Guar Perahu here on Thursday.

The boys claimed they tried to save Cheong Sze Ling, a Year Six pupil at SJK (C) Kubang Semang, but they just could not reach him.

Terrified and overcome by fear, the two friends rushed home and kept the incident a secret until a schoolteacher was able to coax a confession from one of them around 8am yesterday.

On Thursday night, Sze Ling's mother S. Kiang, 38, was frantically looking for her son who did not return home after heading out with his friends around 2pm.

She said when he failed to return, she went looking for him at several of his friends' homes but to no avail.

"All the while, I was hoping he might have put up a night with his friends," said the housewife.

Kiang went to her son's school early yesterday and with the help of a schoolteacher, they began questioning his friends before one broke down and related the ordeal of seeing Sze Ling drown.

Immediately, the police and the Fire and Rescue Department were alerted for a search and rescue operation.

Sze Ling's body was found trapped by tree branches downstream at 11am yesterday - about 500m from the spot where he was believed to have gone under.

The other friend who went for the swim with him was so afraid that he skipped school yesterday.

Sze Ling's body was sent to the Bukit Mertajam Hospital for a post-mortem. He was the third among four siblings in the family.