21-year-old Malaysian engineering student drowns in New Zealand lake after attempting to pose for photo

A 21-year-old Malaysian mechanical engineering student, Amzar Azim bin Azmi, drowned in Lake Karapiro in New Zealand. 

The mechanical engineering student was first reported missing since 3.30pm last Sunday (Feb 26) after posing for a photo, and his body was recovered by local authorities on Monday (Feb 27), reports The Coverage

Prior to the tragic accident, Azmar had asked his friends to take a picture of him floating in the water, but subsequently ‘disappeared’.

Said one friend:

“‘One moment he was posing for a photo in a placid Lake Karapiro in Waikato, the next, he was gone.”

Azmar’s flatmate Amar Rafaee who was also among the group told reporters that Azmar and the group left the Hamilton East flat they shared with four others on Sunday (Feb 27) to cycle along the Hamilton River Trail.

They reached the Waipuke Reserve, on the southern side of Lake Kaapiro in the afternoon where Azmar apparently asked Rafaee’s friend to take a picture of him, but shortly after Amzar started shouting for help:

"People nearby tried to reach him."

Waikato police Search and Rescue Sergeant Vince Ranger estimated the water level to around six to eight metres deep when the student disappeared. 

Said the Sergeant:

“There are all sorts of scenarios, as there always are with these types of incidents, and we are often covering more than one scenario at one time."

Vince also confirmed that police divers found the body on Monday (Feb 27) shortly after noon where Azmi was last seen in shoulder-height water on Sunday (Feb 26). 

Azmi was a mechanical engineering student at the University of Waikato and had just returned after a three-month holiday back in Malaysia.