Two boys die believed to have eaten waste food

ALOR SETAR: Two Myanmar siblings died after they were believed to have eaten food scraps from a rubbish bin in Kampung Baru Sungai Tepa, near Bukit Malut, Langkawi this afternoon.

Langkawi police chief, ACP Shariman Ashari, said police received a report on the deaths of the two boys, identified as Nizambudin Jamaludin, four, and Ngei, two, at about 6.15 pm.

"Preliminary investigation found that at 5.30 pm, the victims' 36-year-old father saw the two boys at the dump site, staggering before he lifted both and rushed to a nearby neighbour's house.

"The father found that the mouths of his two children were foaming and a few minutes later his boys were no longer breathing," he said in a statement here today.

Shariman said during the incident, the victims' father was out doing odd jobs.

"They do not have a house and are only squatting at a neighbour's house in the village," he said.

He said the remains of the two boys were sent to the Sultanah Maliha Hospital, Langkawi for post-mortems, and the case was classified as sudden death.

-- BERNAMA