BALING, Oct 16 — Four children who followed a villager to watch monkeys at play in the Gunung Inas forest reserve in Kampung Buki Rawa, Sedim yesterday, have been reported missing.

Siblings Aina Nadia Md Dahari, 13 and Ahmad Mohamad, 11, Mohd Hafiz Rizuan, 14, and Rohaizat Jamaluddin, 10, were last seen in the forest reserve at about 2pm.

At that time, the children were spotted accompanying the villager, Mansor Che Man, who had promised to show them the monkeys.

The whereabouts of Mansor, 39, from Kampung Buluh, a village adjacent to Kampung Bukit Rawa, are unknown.

According to the siblings’ father, Md Dahari Jahaya, 57, he realised something was amiss when his two children failed to return home after 7pm yesterday.

“It was only then that I decided to look for them in the neighbourhood but in vain.

“When I failed to locate them, I lodged a report at the Malau police station, only to discover that another two children (Mohd Hafiz and Rohaizat) were also reported missing,” he said.

Yesterday, a search and rescue (SAR) operation was mounted by a team comprising members of the fire and rescue department, civil defence department and Rela to locate the missing children.

This afternoon, the SAR operation was temporarily halted due to heavy rain, an SAR team member told Bernama.

Baling Member of Parliament Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim was at the scene of the SAR operation. — Bernama