A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl was killed after she was run over by a family car in Kampung Keledang Luar in the mukim of Tawar, Baling yesterday afternoon.

Baling police chief Shamsudin Mamat said in the 2.15pm incident, the girl was said to be playing outside the house with her seven-year-old brother and had entered the car, which was parked in front of the house.

“According to witnesses, the girl was seen playing in the driver’s seat and was believed to have released the handbrake, causing the car to roll backwards,” he said in a statement today.

“The girl panicked, got out of the car and ran to the back to try to stop it but could not and was trapped.”

Shamsudin said the incident came to the attention of her 29-year-old uncle, who was then preparing to go out to work as an ambulance driver of a private company.

“Her uncle who heard his nephew’s screams rushed out and found his niece under the car before pushing it forward and retrieved the girl but she was unconscious,” he said.

Shamsudin said the girl’s uncle then rushed her to the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sungai Petani, but she was reported to have died on the way to the hospital.

He said the girl, who was a Year Three pupil at Sekolah Kebangsaan Tawar, Kuala Ketil lived with her family but during the incident, her father and grandmother were not at home and that she and her other siblings, aged seven to 15, were being taken care of by their uncle.

He said the girl’s body was sent to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Setar for a post-mortem and that the case was classified as sudden death and being investigated under section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001. – Bernama, April 24, 2022.