Malaysian boy chokes to death on live fish in freak accident

Malaysian boy chokes to death on live fish in freak accident
at 0:36 on July 12, 2005, EST.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - An eight-year-old boy choked to death in a Malaysian village when a live fish he was holding in his hands leapt into his mouth and lodged in his throat, a news report said Tuesday.

Samiun Ahmad, the son of a rubber tapper, had scooped the fish out of a pond in a neighbour's house and was excitedly showing it around when the freak accident occurred Monday, the New Straits Times reported. The report could not be independently confirmed immediately.

People around him including a neighbour, Aslinda Khan, and her sons tried to pull the fish out of Samiun's mouth when they saw him gasping for air but failed, the Times said. Aslinda drove Samiun to a hospital 10 kilometres away where he was declared dead, the Times said.

It quoted Aslinda as saying that Samiun, the third of four children, was in great pain throughout the journey to hospital.

"He was so excited with his catch," Samiun's father, Ahmad Johari was quoted as saying. "He showed (it) to us and wanted to rear the fish in our neighbour's pond," he said.

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