A few days ago, news broke out that made me really suspicious of the ground beneath my feet.

A tourist from India was walking around in the popular tourist area of Masjid India when a sinkhole appeared beneath her. She fell into it.

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ℹ️ Jalan Masjid India is a popular tourist spot located near Masjid Jamek, a hisotorical landmark. It is an enclave for the local Indian community and has a famous night market.

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I remember reading the news and thinking, poor thing. I hope she didn’t break any bones.

And forgot about it.

The next day, I discovered that they could not find her. She had completely disappeared and only her slippers were found.

My brain immediately went: How in the world can someone disappear when falling into an 8m-deep hole??

But it turns out that there was fast-running water in the hole and she was swept away.

One theory is that her body was swept away into the maze of sewage pipes beneath the city. An expert even said that authorities should call off the search because: “These sewer lines have a minimum flow speed of 1m per second. Theoretically, the body could have travelled up to 86.4km within 24 hours.”

To make matters worse, a second sinkhole appeared in the same area a few days after, so now the raod will be closed. The much-awaited Merdeka parade for Malaysia’s national day is also cancelled due to this, out of respect for the victim. (The parade takes place quite close to the area.)

Helpfully, or perhaps unhelpfully, a Malay daily released this map which highlighted sinkhole “danger zones” in Selangor.

Adding to the chaos, a local “bomoh” (witch doctor) is performing rituals at the area. He is a semi-celebrity of sorts, having gained infamy when he performed a ritual in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after MH370 going missing broke out.

Personally, I think this is a tasteless attention grab and maybe that’s why the religious authorities are not amused and have summoned the bomoh for questioning.

A healthier and more respectful ceremony by local Indian groups took place near the site, fortunately.

And the prime minister also expressed his condolences to the victim’s family.

A lot of Malaysians seem to believe that the sinkhole is the result of negligence. Perhaps, but the scarier story is that it is also a natural phenomenon. Massive sinkholes have appeared around the world, as this video below demonstrates.

In fact, a sinkhole appeared in Seoul yesterday.

Malaysia rarely gets natural disasters, so when something like this happens, it is literally earth shaking.

I pray for the victim’s family, and I hope that she will be found, somehow.

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