Jerantut district police chief Mazlan Hassan said the boy, Mohammad Zamarulhisyam Shaari, was believed to have drowned while bathing in the floodwater with three friends at 4pm yesterday.

“His friends claimed that the victim was suddenly pulled into the water but they could not help him as he was at a deeper side. A villager swam towards the victim and pulled him to safety,” Mazlan said.

The victim was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation and taken to the health clinic for first aid before being taken to hospital by boat and later transferred to Kuala Lipis hospital. He was pronounced dead at 3.33pm today.

The flood situation in Johor, Kelantan, Pahang and Perak has improved tonight with the number of evacuees at relief centres dropping.

Temerloh has become the most severely hit among nine districts in Pahang, while Pekan and Bera districts are on alert as water from Temerloh is expected to flow to both districts.

Police have denied allegations that flooding occurred in Cameron Highlands after a video on social media purportedly showing the incident went viral. He urged those who received the video to not spread it as it would make matters worse.

According to police, the two-minute video, spread through WhatsApp and Facebook since yesterday, was believed to be about an incident in Indonesia.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd also denied allegations that TNB released water from a dam in Cameron Highlands and caused flooding in Lipis.

In Terengganu, the number of evacuees rose to 13,220 tonight compared with 13,092 this evening in the districts of Kemaman, Dungun and Hulu Terengganu.

Kemaman district recorded the highest number of evacuees at 11,132.

Several roads leading to the town of Chukai were also closed to light vehicles due to flooding.