Malaysian authorities are attempting to rescue a girl who fell into an eight-metre deep sinkhole that opened on a busy highway in Kuala Lumpur.
The 48-year-old Indian nationwide was sitting on a roadside bench in Jalan India Masjid when the bottom beneath her abruptly caved in, in line with native police.
Movies on social media present crowds of individuals watching rescue staff attempting to make their means into the sinkhole. Some have ladders, whereas others are utilizing hammers and diggers to try to clear the way in which.
There doesn’t look like any signal of the girl.
The Kuala Lumpur Fireplace and Rescue Division mentioned it acquired a misery name at 08:22 native time (00:22 GMT) and dispatched 15 firemen to the scene.
Operation commander Mohd Riduan Akhbar instructed native media {that a} search and rescue operation was being carried out.
“The Particular Tactical Operation and Rescue Workforce of Malaysia (STORM) and the K9 unit are on the location,” he mentioned.
Ninety personnel from varied different companies have additionally joined within the operation, in line with native police chief Assistant Commissioner Sulizmie Affendy Sulaiman.
“We are going to take a look at CCTV footage and take statements from witnesses to get a clearer image of what occurred,” he mentioned.
The BBC has reached out to the Kuala Lumpur Fireplace and Rescue Division for remark.
Sinkholes typically type when underground water dissolves the rock on the floor, inflicting a gap to type.
Though there is no such thing as a exact information globally, geologists say they’re moderately frequent. Human accidents, nonetheless, are very uncommon.
One of many worst current sinkholes disasters when it comes to casualties occurred in Canada in 2010, when a household of 4 died after their complete home was swallowed by a gaping sinkhole close to Montreal.
The world’s largest sinkhole is Xiaoxhai Tiankeng in south-western China. With a depth measuring 660 metres, researchers imagine it was fashioned greater than 128,000 years in the past.