By Nancy Nais
KUCHING, Feb 24: A 70-year-old woman was found lifeless after her vehicle sunk into the Sarawak River this morning.
Rescuers comprising divers from the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba)’s water rescue unit (PPDA) successfully located the vehicle in the river and pulled the woman out after forcing the door open.
Bomba Sarawak Zon 1 chief PgKBI Yusri Basri who was at the scene said they were alerted of the incident at 10.36am by the public that a vehicle had plunged into the water near the Satok bridge and Petronas gas station.
He said according to an eyewitness, the vehicle was last seen some 100m from the river bank.
A total of 25 firefighters including its PPDA team from the Padungan and Batu Lintang stations were immediately deployed to the scene.
The divers PB Collin Pin and PB Kamaruddin Padin made their first dive at 12.13pm.
By 12.19pm, they located the vehicle’s position and came up to shore to discuss the next strategy as the vehicle was located in waters some 10 meters deep.
The second dive by PB Mohd Zamri Amir and PB Mohd Hadeli Osman at 12.50pm was an attempt to extract the woman out of the vehicle.
At 12.56pm, the divers appeared on the surface of the river together with the woman and they brought her towards the river bank.
Her body was brought up with a stretcher and immediately handed over to the police for further investigation. — DayakDaily
