Chennai Floods: 41 Malaysian Dentistry Students Arrive Home Safely

SEPANG (Selangor, Malaysia), Dec 8 (Bernama) -- A group of 41 Malaysian dentistry students in Chennai who were trapped in their hostel in the flood disaster in Chennai, India are safely back home. The group had to endure a 13-hour bus ride to Cochin, Kerala to before taking a flight home. The students, aged from 19 to 25 years from Saveetha Dental College, including 12 sponsored by Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA, a Malaysian government agency), landed safely at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) 2 from Kochi International Airport at about 2.56pm Tuesday. Vice-President of the Malaysian Students Association in Chennai, S.Sham Raj, 25, said they were the last group to return to Malaysia following the devastating floods that hit Chennai, said the be worst flooding in the city in a century "Our college was not affected badly. The hostel is still safe. However, more rains and heavy thunder storms are forecast. "That is why the university had declared a week's holiday since last Tuesday for all students due to floods in Chennai for our safety and the holiday duration will depend on the flood situation there," Sham Raj, who is currently under internship, said. A fellow intern who declined to be named, thanked God that her college was not badly affected like other neighbouring colleges but said these students faced difficulty in obtaining food, and there were huge disturbance in telephone lines and electricity supply. "Our parents are worried for our safety. We had difficulty in contacting them. Lines were so bad that we had to go on top of the roof to obtain telephone signal. "And since the college has given us a week off, we decided to come back home. The college is empty now as our local collegues (Indian students) have left for their respective hometowns," she said. Meanwhile, a MARA scholarship first year student, Nurul Husniah Che Soh, 19, from Malaysia's east coast state Terengganu, said she was shocked to see the devastating floods after three months arriving in the Indian state as she never experienced floods in her life. Recounting their distressing experience, she said the students suffered after they found themselves stranded in their hostel for few days, with no way to go out, no water, electricity and no means to call for help. --BERNAMA