On the eighth day of a search for a woman who vanished into a 26-foot-deep sinkhole on a busy road in Malaysia's capital, authorities decreed conditions had become "too risky" to keep sending divers to look for her. About 110 rescuers have been working around the clock in a sewer network in Kuala Lumpur to find Vijaya Lakshmi Gali, 48, the BBC reports. Except for a pair of slippers, they've come up empty. Divers who went down in full scuba gear had to battle zero visibility and heavy rain. A firefighter and a sewer worker who went in Friday found it "impossible, extremely difficult, to break the solidified [debris] which are like concrete blocks," the director of the Fire and Rescue Department said.
Local media reported the rescue effort has become a search and recovery operation, per CNN. Gali was visiting from India and reportedly was on her way to a temple with her family when the ground beneath her collapsed. The woman's family was to return to India by now, but the government has extended the visas for a month. The health of the crews is one reason for the change in mission. "You don't want to know what's in there," one firefighter said. "It's full of human waste and other garbage. We decontaminate immediately after each dive."
Kuala Lumpur residents have expressed anger and fear about the sinkhole, asking what caused it, per the BBC. Mayor Maimunah Mohd Sharif issued a public assurance that the city is safe and that a task force will inspect sewage pipes and assess the safety of nearby buildings, per the Guardian. National Day celebrations were called off out of respect for the family. An official from the Minerals and Geosciences Department suggested the sinkhole could have been caused by a combination of human activities and climate change. (More Malaysia stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
