Heartbroken family calls for signs warning of danger after Laith Alaid’s tragic drowning

The last vision Hussain Alaid has of his son Laith is the image of the 11-year-old’s hand stretching up from underneath the water that was sweeping him away.

The image of his little boy’s hand, desperately stretching up from underneath the water, haunts Hussein Alaid.

It’s the last memory he has before his son, 11-year-old Laith Alaid, was swept away by a current while walking across knee-deep water during a fishing trip on the Central Coast last Sunday.

“He just saw his hands, he couldn’t see his body. Just his arms,” said Laith’s heartbroken mother Tuka Al Hirz, speaking on behalf of her traumatised husband.

A week after her little boy’s life was claimed in a freak instance, Ms Al Hirz has bravely told her son’s story, determined to raise awareness amid the tragedy.

In the Western Sydney family’s loungeroom sits a large photo of Laith, taken just hours before his death.

He beams at the camera, proudly holding up two fish, his eyes twinkling.

There was no way of knowing this would be the last photo ever taken of her boy, and that in just a few hours, Laith — who loved soccer, was a great big brother, and had just applied for his dream high school — would be dead.

Laith Alaid, who drowned at The Entrance last week. Pictures: Supplied

Tuka Al Hirz, with Laith, wants more signage warning of the danger.

This is what torments Ms Al Hirz, who was at her home in Granville when the drowning occurred. She doesn’t understand how things could have gone so wrong so quickly.

“I just said bye to them, to Laith. I saw them in the morning, and I said bye to him, and he said bye back.

“That was the last time I saw him,” she told The Saturday Telegraph.

“They decided let’s go fishing and looked for the nicest place to go to. They crossed a few times, in the place, they were fine.

“Dad was holding the other three, and Laith was a bit behind him.

“He saw that he was struggling a bit and told him ‘just wait, and I will come back for you’.

“He went and put the other three (boys) safely across, he turned around and saw (Laith) was getting swept away.

Eleven-year-old Laith Alaid with two of his brothers. Picture: Supplied

“(Hussein) started jumping from rock to rock to get to him. He tried to grab his hand, but he just got sucked in; he couldn’t see him any more.

“He tried to get to him, but he couldn’t get to him.

“He (Hussein) said that it felt like something was dragging him too, he was getting pulled in with him,” she said.

The last thing the father of four saw before his eldest son was gone forever, was Laith’s hand reaching out above the surf.

Three days later his body was found on the Central Coast.

Family members scan The Entrance channel, searching for Laith. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Ms Al Hirz said the crossing appeared deceptively calm.

The knee-deep water was shallow enough to walk across, and was filled with kids and children playing.

“If you went there to swim, you would see kids playing in that same spot. There was no clear signs,” she said.

The channel, known by locals as “the black spot”, is used by beach-goers during low tide as a way to get back to the carpark or north side of the beach.

But when the tide changes, it can quickly become deadly.

While signs warn visitors of the channel’s potential risks, Ms Al Hirz said it was hard to know how dangerous it could be when the channel was filled with people walking across it, just like her husband and four boys did.

Emergency services and community members searched in vain for Laith. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

She gazes at her son’s photo, which rests among candles and flowers instead of in a family album. What was once a happy memory has become a funeral photo and a shrine to her lost son.

“All four of my kids were born in Australia. My family came to Australia in 1995, we have been here for a long time,” she said. “We’re not new to the ocean. We’re not new to the beach… I first took Laith to the beach when he was one year old.

“We just didn’t know that one place was dangerous. Only the locals knew that. Anyone who goes there now, they wouldn’t know.

“It wasn’t deep. You could walk through it normally. It was just that day a strong current swept him off (his feet) and dragged him into the ocean.”

Laith was an amazing big brother who adored his four younger siblings.

In the moments after Laith was swept away, a huge search ensured. The community and locals descended on the beach, determined to find the little boy.

Ms Al Hirz received the news from her husband on the phone.

“I didn’t understand him. He was just screaming. Someone took the phone from him and explained it to me properly,” she said.

She raced to the beach during a 1 ½-hour car drive that felt like it would never end. When she arrived, it was dark.

She rushed to the beach and joined the search, anonymously, too distraught to tell the locals she was the missing boy’s mum.

While the family said they remained hopeful, Tuka admits that she knew the truth deep down.

“I knew that he was gone. We just needed to find his body,” she said.

In the days since Laith’s death, there have been growing calls for a review of The Entrance Channel, with MP David Mehan calling for an urgent review into safety signage.

Central Coast Council said Laith’s death was “tragic” and it was liaising with stakeholders, including Surf Life Saving NSW, to undertake a full audit of signs.

Ms Al Hirz finds it unfathomable that there isn’t more education available for water safety.

She is calling for greater education on water safety and increased signage at that spot.

“(Laith) wanted to make a difference. Maybe God did this to bring attention to the place,” she said. “Maybe that’s the way God wanted to do it.

“It’s dangerous. We should do something about it.”

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Originally published as Heartbroken family calls for signs warning of danger after Laith Alaid’s tragic drowning