JAKARTA: A young Saudi woman drowned as she tried in vain to save her mother, who was swept away by high waves off the Indonesian island of Lombok.
Elham Abdussalam, 27, and her mother Jamilah Abdul Malik, 47, perished in waters off Ketapak Beach in the island’s Selong Belanak Bay.
The two women had visited the beach on Monday afternoon while on holiday with their family, and the mother was overwhelmed by two high waves in succession.
“The mother was suddenly caught in a current and swept out to sea. The daughter dived in to rescue her but both drowned before others arrived to help,” Fawaz Abdullah Althaymin, an official at the Saudi Embassy in Jakarta, told Arab News.
The women’s bodies were retrieved by residents after an hour-long search operation, and taken to a hospital in the provincial capital, Mataram.
The family declined a post-mortem examination, and accompanied the bodies on a flight home to Jeddah on Tuesday.
The Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia, Essam Abed Al-Thaqafi, offered his condolences to the family. He urged Saudi tourists to be cautious about the places to visit in Indonesia, and stressed the importance of communicating with the Embassy when they arrived.
