A car was trapped in a sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday 24 November 2019. The incident happened at about 11.35 pm local time, in the Kampung Attap area of the city, when part of the road collapsed beneath the front of the moving car, trapping both the vehicle and the forty-two-year old woman driving it. The car was eventually winched out of the hole, apparently only having suffered minor damage to its front bumper.
Car trapped in a sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 24 November 2019. Adinda Qilla Apmkl/Facebook.
Sinkholes
are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated
deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and
eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are
unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides,
apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without
trace.
Workers inspecting a sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before repairs can be attempted. BBX Press.
On this occasion geologist Nor Bakhiah Baharim of the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu has suggested that the hope appeared due to the erosion of limestone beneath the road, a substrate that underlies much of the city, and suggested that sinkholes may be a problem in the area if buried water pipes leak or burst, and that extra care should be taken in installing such pipes in areas built on limestone.
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