Small town discovers large python - and Malaysia’s youngest TV reporter
Wow, give that kid a microphone and put him in front of a camera.
Which is exactly what a reporter for Malaysia’s Astro Awani did when covering an incident at a market in Kedah.
Muhammad Hafiq Mohd Asyraf, who is just 12, carried on flawlessly, becoming possibly the country's youngest TV news reporter.
His parents have a stall at the wet market in Bukit Selambau, near Sungai Petani.
When a python was spotted in a drain there on Monday (Jan 24), Hafiq had shown it in a Facebook live video.
The primary school pupil said he was at home doing his homework when he got a text message about the python, from his father.
The boy rushed over, and also called emergency services. The 30-kg python was caught and removed.
When the TV news crew arrived, Hafiq showed them around, talked to others at the market and even joked about “interviewing” the fish and vegetables, The Rakyat Post reported.
His videos have gone viral and charmed the Internet.
But there’s more to his story.
The boy loves cooking and is known as Chef Hafiq among his schoolmates and teachers, reported the New Straits Times.
His mother Nur Shakila Zainol, 33, said she was surprised that Haziq developed his cooking skills from just watching videos on YouTube.
"He will not allow anyone to be in the kitchen whenever he is cooking," she was quoted as saying.
Despite his new-found celebrity status, there is something else about him that is not widely known, the report said. Hafiq is a thalassaemia patient.
"At one time, the doctor who treated me asked me to prepare bread and 'burger Malaysia' for the hospital staff," it quoted him as saying with a broad smile.
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