Woman In Kuching Drowns Despite 2 Men's Best Efforts To Rescue Her From Sinking Car
Two passers-by tried to save the woman from a tiny boat.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 25 Feb 2021, 12:10 PM
A body of an elderly woman was recovered from a vehicle that sank into the Sarawak River in Kuching yesterday, 24 February
The incident happened near the Satok Suspension Bridge around 10.30am on Wednesday, reported The Borneo Post.
The 70-year-old woman is said to have driven her car off a ramp near the bridge, causing it to sink 15m deep into the river.
A video showing a silver Perodua Kenari partially submerged in the water went viral on social media. Two rescuers on a tiny boat can be seen trying to save the woman.
One of the men on the boat — who introduced himself as Bonnie — said he was at the scene to clean garbage in the river in that morning, reported The Star.
As soon as he and his friend saw the submerging vehicle, they rushed over and tried to save the driver.
"My partner and I tried to open the car door to rescue the old woman, but all four doors were locked; we had no tools to break the window," he said
"The old woman saw that we had failed and sent us a signal to stop saving her, but we did not give up. We tried using a rope to pull the car out of the water."
According to China Press, the rope eventually broke. They could only watch the vehicle continue sinking.
14 firemen from the Fire and Rescue Department were deployed to the scene and it took them about three hours to retrieve the body of the woman.
It is learnt that the victim's family members lost contact with her after she went out on Wednesday morning
China Press reported that a missing person notice was later launched on the Internet.
However, when the family members saw her again, the elderly woman had already passed on.
Kuching police chief ACP Awang Din Awang Gani told The Borneo Post that police are currently investigating the matter.
