Desperate search for tourist missing for five days after being swallowed up by sinkhole while out shopping

28 August 2024, 12:50

A tourist has been missing for five days after being swallowed by a sinkhole that opened up underneath her.

The woman was out shopping in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, when she plummeted 26ft through the pavement and disappeared.

Vijaya Lakshmi, 48, was walking down the street when the ground suddenly opened up beneath her.

Some men on a bench nearby narrowly manage to avoid falling in the hole as well.

Initial search efforts only led to the discovery of her shoes. No other sign of the woman has been found.

It is feared she might have fallen into a cracked concrete pipe with fast-flowing water leading to a sewage plant around 7km away.

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“Sewage water is also very harsh, and the current has a minimum flow speed of one metre per second. Theoretically, she could have travelled up to 86.4km within 24 hours,” Datuk G Parameswaran, the president of the Malaysian Water and Wastewater Quality Safety Association, told the Straits Times.

She is not believe to have survived the incident. She had been in Malaysia with her family for around two months and they were due to fly home on Sunday, according to local reports.

Residents of the city have expressed alarm about the safety of the area after another sinkhole on the same Jalan Masjid India road opened up 50 metres from the first one after a heavy overnight downpour.

Mayor Maimunah Mohd Sharif said the city “remains safe unless proven otherwise by studies”.