BUTTERWORTH, PENANG (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK)- A woman drove into a canal in Taman Oi Leng Hoi, Sungai Puyu, after missing a turn during a downpour.
She escaped in the nick of time by sliding out from the window and standing on the car’s rooftop while waiting for help.
The incident ocurred at 7.15am on Friday (July 14).
“I managed to wind down the window and swim out as the cold water started gushing in,” she said.
“Thank God, someone came to my aid after a while,” she added.
The woman, who declined to give her name, said she was on her way home after sending her son to school at SJK(C) Li Hwa.
“I missed a turn because the road was flooded. Before I realised it, the car had gone into the canal,” she added.
In a statement, the Seberang Prai Municipal Council said the downpour lasted from 3.30am to 6am and the sea level was recorded at 2.2m during that period.
In a separate incident in George Town, a 59-year-old businessman fell into a monsoon drain and drowned at about 6am on Friday.
The man had got out of his stalled car that was caught in floodwaters in Jalan Tun Dr Awang, near the intersection to Relau, to assess the problem, when the accident occured.
State Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Mohd Azman Hussin said the body of the man, Lim Kean Chuan, was retrieved from a manhole about 800m from where he fell.