DUBAI Syrian restaurant manager Tammam Al Shikh was taking the last order of the day around 2am when a female diner raised an alarm. Her four-year-old son had gone missing.
Al Shikh, 28, who runs Al Hamidieh Restaurant in Dubai Marina near the Road and Transport Authority (RTA’S) ferry station, will never forget what followed that night on November 13.
“I was getting ready to wrap up the evening. Three tables were still occupied and there were around 10 people sitting in the restaurant. Two women had occupied a table overlooking the Marina. A little boy was riding a scooter in front of them. One of the women got up to use the washroom. When she returned her son was missing,” Al Shikh told XPRESS.
“She started shouting for him and soon some of us at the restaurant started looking for the boy. Since he was riding a scooter, we thought he must have wandered away on the Marina Walk,” he recalled.
Horrific discovery
“For nearly half an hour we looked for him and then suddenly I spotted him floating in the water. I got my staff to call the police and ambulance and asked one of the diners, who was a doctor, to dive in the water with me to try and save the child.”
Both Al Shikh and the doctor jumped over the metal railings and swam up to the spot where the boy was floating. Moments later Al Shikh was able to pull the boy out. “He looked calm. I was praying for him to be alive as I carried him to shore. The doctor tried to resuscitate him but in vain. In the meantime, the ambulance and the police also arrived at the scene. Later, the paramedics pronounced him dead,” he said.
“For three nights I could not sleep. Even now he comes in my dreams. It will take some time for me to move on. I keep wishing he was alive,” said a distraught Al Shikh.
“He must have squeezed through the metal railings and slipped into the water. There is no other way he could have gone down,” he said. The boy was believed to be a Saudi national.
Following the tragic incident, Dubai police tightened safety in the area and blocked a gap between the metal railing and the gate to the ferry station. “It was not there before. I’m glad that the authorities are taking measures to safeguard the place further.”
