Sinkhole JBPM's Early Morning Dive Hits Another Dead End

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department's (JBPM) attempt to locate the missing Indian national who fell into the sinkhole on Jalan Masjid India by exploring a nearby sewer channel has once again ended in failure.

A check by Bernama saw two scuba divers from the JBPM Northern Region Academy began descending into the sewer channel at 4 am to reach a suspected backlog area approximately 44 metres from the incident site.

The dive was conducted after the SAR team sealed off part of the channel and redirected the inflow to reduce the water level from 1.5 metres to 0.8 metres, employing the same method as the previous day.

Earlier at 11.20 pm, a crane was seen arriving at the scene, extracting an object from the sinkhole and deploying high-powered pumps with capacities of 10,000 and 20,000 litres to drain water from the sewer channel.

However, after nearly half an hour of diving, the effort once again proved fruitless.

Members of the SAR team reported that the divers faced significant challenges, including large amounts of rocks and sand in the channel, while strong currents made it difficult to reach the backlog area.

Present at the scene this morning to oversee the SAR operation were JPBM director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad and Dang Wangi police chief ACP Sulizmie Affendy Sulaiman.

The SAR operation was temporarily suspended at 5 am and will resume later.

-- BERNAMA