Malaysian survived for three days in jungle after being injured in car crash

A car skidded at a curve on the road before it plunged into a 6m-deep ravine along the Ipoh-Kuala Lumpur old trunk road near Tanah Mas in Perak, on Oct 19 2014. The Malaysian man crawled through jungle on broken limbs, and drank drain water for
A car skidded at a curve on the road before it plunged into a 6m-deep ravine along the Ipoh-Kuala Lumpur old trunk road near Tanah Mas in Perak, on Oct 19 2014. The Malaysian man crawled through jungle on broken limbs, and drank drain water for three days before being rescued after a car crash. -- THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

IPOH - A Malaysian man crawled through jungle on broken limbs, and drank drain water for three days before being rescued after a car crash.

Civil Defence Department worker Nicholas Andrew fell down a 20m-deep ravine after his car swerved off the Ipoh-Kuala Lumpur trunk road on Sunday, the Malay Mail reported.

He and his friend, R. Thiyagarajan, were dispatching invitations to his sister's wedding.

"All I remember is that I lost control of the car. The next thing I remember was opening my eyes in a 20m-deep ravine," he told the Malaysian news site.

He called for his friend, but did not get any response, he said. Mr Andrew then tried to stand up, but found that his right arm and right leg were both broken.

"All I found on the first day was a small drain running along the ravine. It was raining but I was unable to gather any rainwater to drink, so I just gulped down the drain water. I was just so thirsty," Malay Mail quoted him as saying.

He crawled further upstream each day, but his condition worsened. His wounds became infected and he said he had to use a hollow blade of grass to sip water from another drain.

He was finally rescued by orang asli on Wednesday, who rushed him to hospital.

Firefighters scoured the crash site and found Mr Thiyagarajan, 34, dead in the car, The Star said.

Police said the two were heading towards Tapah from Bidor at 3am when the incident occurred.

"Investigations showed that the car skidded to the left when it was swerving along the curve of the road, before plunging into the 6m-deep ravine," a spokesman said.

"He had to crawl along the river for three days before reaching the oil palm estate and was rescued by an orang asli."

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