The NGO’s chairman, Noor Azimah Rahim, labelled it as blatant child abuse.

“I was horrified. How can these people throw snakes into the pond and then expect the kids to be brave and climb out of it? This is child abuse,” she told FMT when contacted.

The video has been making the rounds on social media since last night.

It shows the terrified girls screaming hysterically as they are forced to make their way to the other end of the pit during a stint at a boot camp, believed to be in Kuala Kangsar.

A man, presumably the coach of the boot camp, was screaming “dive, dive” at the girls, and was also heard telling the horrified children to “be strong and brave”.

As the six girls are making their way to the other end of the pit, more snakes are thrown in by an unidentified person, with another spraying a water hose at the children.

Men can also be heard laughing while the girls scream in fear.

The girls were seen panicking as they reached the other end, with all five of them pushing each other to climb up a rope to get out of the pit.

Azimah said the organiser of this boot camp must be reprimanded by the relevant authorities.

“Whoever the organisers are for this camp, they should be booted out and the camp closed until certain safety standards are adhered to.

“The parents should also confront the principals for endangering the children’s lives. How can they throw the snakes into the pond?

“This is a primary school, not a National Service stint,” she said, reminding that kids, too, have dignity.

Azimah suspected that this camp may have been organised by a third party and was hired by the school.

Malay daily Harian Metro said the camp was organised by the Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM).

APM said it is suspending all such boot camps for students to investigate whether this one had violated the standard operating procedures (SOP).

Perak Civil Defence Colonel Mohd Noor Hassan Ashari Sulaiman was quoted as saying that it had been organising such boot camps for the past three years, but stressed that it was the first time snakes had been used.

“That’s why we are puzzled why the management of the boot camp used that approach because we strictly forbid our personnel from playing with snakes.

“APM places great emphasis on the safety of participants and we are disappointed that such an incident happened.”

The video, shared by Friends of PDRM, has been viewed more than 214,000 times and had more than 2,808 shares.

There is no information on the type of the snakes in the video or whether they were poisonous.