Body of missing woman in Kinabalu landslip found by special rescue unit

Search and Rescue team including firemen, policemen, JPAM and villagers searching for the victims at the landside scene.


The body of a 78-year-old grandmother who was buried in Tuesday’s landslip in Kundsang was recovered at 12.15pm on Wednesday.

A Fire and Rescue Services’s Special Technical Operation Rescue Malaysia (STORM) personnel recovered the body of Dohumie Kintie buried under a landslip at the remote Kg Masilau on the foothills of Mount Kinabalu.

The 21-member STORM team was brought in a 5am to carry out search and rescue operations for the woman who was reportedly in the area picking strawberries when the landslip occurred at around 10.45am on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the department in confirming the recovery of the body said further details would be released later.

Dohumie is believed to have taken shelter from a downpour in a hut that was hit by tonnes of rock and mud in the landslip.

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Strong quake strikes Banda Acheh, dozens injured

Dozens of people have been injured after a 6.2-magnitude quake jolted Aceh Province in the northern tip of Sumatra Island of Indonesia today, said local officials.

"There are dozens of people wounded here," Fauzi, head of local disaster management and mitigation agency in Benermeriah of Aceh Province, told China's Xinhua news agency via telephone from Benermeriah.

The quake struck at 14:37 p.m. Jakarta time (0737 GMT) with epicenter at 35 km southwest Benermeriah district of the province and with a depth of 10 km, Subagio, an official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told Xinhua by phone.

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Strong winds blow off roof of 15-storey building

The roof of a 15-storey building housing civil servants was blown off, near Presint 15 here, during a downpour yesterday.

Mohd Ridzuan Mat Shariff, a resident there, said he heard the howling of strong winds and then a loud noise.

"At first, I thought nothing of it and figured the sound was because of the storm outside.

"But then I saw debris and zinc sheets flying about.

"The roof was blown off and fell on the road," he said at the scene.

It was reported that a thunderstorm had also wreaked havoc in nearby areas. In Kampung Datuk Abu Bakar Dengkil, 15 houses were damaged by strong winds.

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who was at the scene, said he was informed of the incident by residents about 7pm.

A portion of the roof structure from the building near Presint 15 in Putrajaya which was blown off during a downpour last night.


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Menara Umno may face closure

Structu ral issue: The crack spotted on a rooftop beam of the Menara Umno in Penang.

The owner of Menara Umno has been directed to fix a deep crack found on a rooftop beam or risk the building being closed down.

“The abnormal crack, measuring about 15cm in width and 45cm in length, was detected by Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) officers du­­ring an inspection of the building on Friday.

“We will leave it to MPPP to ascertain the seriousness of the crack. If the building is not safe, it will be closed down,” Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said at Komtar yesterday.

Lim added that the cracked beam was facing Macalister Road and the building owner JKP Sdn Bhd had put up a safety net around it.

“But the council is not satisfied with a mere safety net. It is unlikely the concrete beam will drop onto the road but it might fall within the building compound.”

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Penang temple agrees to house storm victim’s urn

The Kek Lok Si Temple has agreed to allow the late Lim Chin Aik’s urn to be placed on its premises in Air Itam.

Chin Aik’s wife Lee Chai Song had filled the urn with mud scooped from the wrecked car parts found at the crater in Jalan Macalister.

Lim is believed dead and his body buried at least 40m or 13 storeys underground after his car was hit by a lightning arrestor that snapped and fell off the 21-storey Menara Umno during a freak storm on June 13.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state had appointed lawyers Karpal Singh and Gobind Singh Deo to represent the family to look into the legal matters.

“I’ve spoken to Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and he promised to make a request to the Attorney-General to hold an inquest,” he told a press conference at Komtar yesterday.

He said National Registration Department (NRD) director Datuk Jariah Mohd Said had in a letter explained that under Section 18 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957 (Act 299), the department could not issue a death certificate yet.

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Family members hold seventh-day prayers

Lim Chin Aik’s family members holding prayers near the Penang Museum and Art Gallery in Jalan Macalister yesterday.

Mass prayers were held near Menara Umno to appease the soul of the missing and presumed dead hawker Lim Chin Aik.

The prayers marked the seventh day since last Thursday when Chin Aik was believed to have been crushed to death by a lightning arrestor that fell off from the rooftop.

Condolences were also extended to two other people who were killed in the freak storm.

A minute's silence was observed prior to the chanting, held under a makeshift canopy near the Penang Museum and Art Gallery in Jalan Macalister. The hour-long chanting started at 6.30pm.

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Hawker's family views CCTV clip

Workers covering the 6m hole in Jalan Macalister yesterday

It shows lightning arrestor falling on Lim Chin Aik's car in Jalan Macalister during storm

GEORGE TOWN: FAMILY members of hawker Lim Chin Aik were yesterday shown how his Honda City sustained a direct hit by the falling lightning arrestor in a 34-second video during the storm, here, on June 13.

The video, obtained from a closed-circuit television (CCTV) in Jalan Macalister, recorded vehicles passing along the stretch at 6.33pm.

A minute later, as the winds blew strongly, the video showed the falling lightning arrestor hitting Chin Aik's car, after which a blackout occurred.

Chin Aik's body has yet to be recovered.

Family members, including Chin Aik's parents, Lim Tian Chor, 73, and Ang Kim Looi @ Ang Kim Hooi, 70, as well as younger brother Khung Ling viewed the video at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's office.

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Tests find no trace of body tissue from wreckage

Local authorities filling up the crater at Jalan Macalister, Penang.



Police are unable to detect any body tissue and blood stain belonging to 44-year-old missing hawker Lim Chin Aik in its forensic investigations.

Lim is presumed death after he was believed to have been crushed to death by a pole which fell off the Menara Umno in Jalan Macalister during a freak storm last Thursday.

Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Gan Kong Meng said the forensic and chemistry departments could not trace any remains of Lim after scouring for Lim's DNA from the car wreckage unearthed from the gaping hole.

"We believe his body is there (buried below the road surface) and it cannot be recovered," Gan told a press conference today.

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Pole collapse due to design error

The collapse of a lightning rod pole in Penang recently was probably due to an error in its design.

The pole was fitted with more than a dozen metal discs that served as a ladder for a maintenance technician to reach the lightning rod mounted on top of the pole.

Due to the presence of strong winds at the time of the collapse, the discs offered a much stronger resistance to the wind and this caused the pole to bend in various directions.

The extreme length of the pole resulted in strong physical forces on the brackets that anchored it to the building and this resulted in the pole being ripped off the building, along with whatever that was anchored to it.

This analysis is based on my observation of hundreds of lightning rod poles that were installed in various cities in Japan nearly two decades ago.

Although they are impacted annually by strong typhoon winds that are at least twice as strong as the one reported in Penang, they hardly collapse even after years of exposure to the typhoons.

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Penang freak storm: Inquest to be held to certify death of missing hawker

An inquest will be carried out to certify the death of 44-year-old economy rice seller who is believed buried in a crater in Macalister Road, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the inquest, to be carried out for three days starting today, was to give closure to Lim Chin Aik's family.

“Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi will lead the inquest team. The results will be forwarded to the National Registration Department so a death certificate can be issued for the family to file their insurance claim,” he said at the Penang State Museum and Art Gallery in Macalister Road near the incident site yesterday.

Lim is believed to be buried 7m under the rubble following the collapse of a lightning arrestor from Menara Umno after a deadly storm last Thursday.

The impact of the structure's fall also killed Indian national Jahir Hussain Sulaiman, 46.

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Penang freak storm: Family grieves as search gets called off

The family of the man believed buried some 7m underground in the Macalister Road tragedy broke down when the search for Lim Chin Aik's body had to be called off.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Lim's wife Lee Chai Song, 48, scooped mud from the last piece of his wrecked car part that had been dug out of the crater where Lim was believed to have been buried.

“We cannot find your body. We will treat this wet soil as your remains and bring you home,” she cried in Hokkien.

Lim, 44, is feared buried after debris from a lightning arrestor snapped and fell off the 21-storey Menara Umno and hit his car following a freak storm on Thursday.

Lim's mother Ang Kim Looi, 70, also wept when she was told that the operation had been called off.

“Wa chin chia sayang lu, lu chai bor? (I love you very much, do you know that?),” the grief-stricken mother said in Hokkien.

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Penang freak storm: Architect: force that hit Lim’s car would crush anything

What kind of force shears open a road and drives a car some six metres into the ground? According to an engineering expert, the force that hit the Honda City driven by Lim Chin Aik was equal to having seven buses travelling at 130kph hitting him simultaneously.

The full capacity of each stage bus is 60 passengers and the driver.

Thirty-five-year old Singapore-based architect Clifford Tan was calculating the force of the impact on the car driven by rice seller Lim when the 38m lightning arrestor and part of the “wing wall” holding it fell from the rooftop of the 21-storey Menara Umno in Macalister Road. Tan said the debris would “pulverise anything that came into contact with it”.

The debris which spiralled downwards would have generated high velocity when plunging, he said in a telephone interview from Singapore.

It would be difficult to extricate anything which was crushed or pinned down by the sheer force of the falling debris, he added. The fate of the driver is still unknown but he is feared dead.

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Forensics sieve wreckage for human remains

Officials from the Penang Hospital are examining bits of a car that was unearthed from the Jalan Macalister crater for bone particles.

Six Penang Hospital forensic department’s pathologists headed by Datuk Dr Zahari Noor were seen sieving through the remnants of the car to confirm the death of Lim Chin Aik, 44, who is believed to be buried alive in the wreckage.

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Search called off for victim of Penang freak storm

Rescue workers have now called off the search for a man believed buried in his car after a freak storm toppled a lightning arrestor pole in Jalan Macalister, George Town, last Thursday.

Family members agreed to end the operation after being briefed of the constraints and difficulties faced by the search team. They were also told that the building structures nearby may be at risk if the digging continued, The Star news portal reported.

At 7.30am today, the rear seat of a car and a tyre were recovered from the site, some 40 hours after the search operation began. The car has been identified as belonging to Lim Chin Aik, 44, who has been reported missing.

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Menara Umno owner failed to comply with rule

The building owner of Menara Umno, where a lightning arrestor landed on several cars last Thursday, failed to submit a safety audit report which was due in 2011.

Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik said a check with the Penang Municipal Council found that the building owner had failed to submit the report required under Section 85A of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.

“The owner failed to comply with the common practice required once in every 10 years.

“It is meant to safeguard the safety aspects of a building,” he said at the scene yesterday.

Ng said civil action could be taken against the owner, as the Act carries a fine of up to RM100,000, a jail term of five years or both, upon conviction.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya, who was also present at the scene, said he would ask the building owner to investigate the incident.

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Police continue search for car under collapsed Penang lightning arrestor

The exact location of the car believed to have been buried at the site of the collapsed lightning arrestor pole in Jalan Macalister has yet to be ascertained, according to Penang Fire Department director Azmi Tamat.

He said the search and digging operation to find the car Sunday evening was hampered as rain had been pouring down since 10.30pm, causing the area where the car was believed to be buried to be covered in mud.

"We don't know the exact location of the car when the mishap occurred. If the pole collapsed right onto the car, it probably have crushed the vehicle into pieces and we don't know the condition of the car or the driver," he told reporters at the scene here.

Nevertheless, he said the team would continue digging the area to find the buried car and victim for the next 24 hours.

So far, he said they had only managed to extricate three tyres or merely 10 per cent of the car components.

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PENANG STORM UPDATE: More excavators brought in to search for body

Excavation works continue at the crated created by a fallen concrete beam on Thursday

The rescue team at the Menara Umno pole collapse site has intensified the search for the missing 44-year-old hawker Lim Chin Aik by digging deeper into the crater.
The authorities are also using six excavators on rotational basis to ensure the work can be carried out round-the-clock.
Even the intermittent rain tonight did not hamper the rescue operations as the excavators continued their quest to recover the wrecked Honda City buried beneath concrete slabs.

Penang government Technical Advisory panel member Datuk Lim Kok Khong said there was a need to increase the depth from six meters to nine meters.

"We need to go deeper into the crater as our on-going rescue efforts have failed to locate the main part of wrecked vehicle as well as the body.

"The pole with a length of about 40 meters may have pushed the wrecked vehicle deeper into the gaping hole."

Kok Khong said the new 40 sheet piles were ferried from Sungai Petani at a cost of RM50,000.

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Search for hawker's body goes on

The victim's wife Lee Chai Song (second from right) with family members pray for divine help in recovering his remains

Mother seeks divine intervention so that rescuers can quickly locate son

GEORGE TOWN: THE search for the body of hawker Lim Chin Aik, 44, who is believed to be buried under a 5m-deep crater near Menara Umno here, continued on its second day.

Two excavators resumed digging the crater from 9am after Lim's family members confirmed that the chassis number found on a wrecked Honda City belonged to him.

Lim's mother, Ang Kim Looi, 70, and sister Lim Lye Soon, 40, arrived the scene at 9.15am and waited anxiously for the operation to dig out his body.

They were joined by Lim's wife, Lee Chai Song, 48, and their three children -- Chia Yiang, 20, Chia Oon, 18, and Hui Jiune, 13 -- who were all in tears upon arrival.

Ang was seen praying with jossticks while crying next to the crater.

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Uprooted tree caused traffic gridlock in Batu Ferringhi

Traffic towards Batu Ferringhi here came to a grinding halt after an uprooted tree at the Pantai Miami corner fell on the front portion of a tour bus.
No one was reported to be hurt in the 11pm incident as the passengers in the bus were evacuated immediately.

The incident blocked the dual-carriageway and caused massive jam.

At press time, the authorities are frantically trying to cut up the tree trunk using cranes and chainsaws.

Bagan Jermal Fire and Rescue Department chief Ravi Arunasalam said a crane has been despatched to the site.

"Currently all traffic to and from Batu Ferringhi has been stopped until the tree is cleared,

PENANG STORM HAVOC: Giant pole crashes onto cars, 7 injured

A pole that was attached to a 21-storey building in Jalan Macalister came crashing down after a thunderstorm, crushing vehicles travelling below, injuring seven with two seriously wounded.
In the 6:45pm incident, about six cars were crushed by the giant white-coloured pole. Among the vehicles was a lorry carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) canisters.

The LPG canisters were seen lying all over road, risking possible explosion.

No casualties have been reported.

The scene of the incident was chaotic, with hundreds running away from nearby outlets. Occupants of the tower were also evacuated.

In BUKIT MERTAJAM, the thunderstorm also caused havoc near the Penang Bridge when a tree was uprooted, falling onto two cars and a motorcycle.

The incident had caused a massive crawl along the mainland-bound stretch as the tree had blocked the three-lane road.

The traffic was only reopened to the traffic at 8.20pm after the Fire and Rescue Department managed to remove the fallen tree.

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