A 46-year-old Indian migrant, who has been working in Singapore for 22 years, is being hailed as a hero both online and offline after he saved a woman who was trapped in a sinkhole. The woman was driving along Tanjong Katong Road South when a section of the road suddenly collapsed, causing her and her car to fall into the sinkhole. Pitchai Udaiyappan Subbiah, who was working at a site nearby, rushed to see what happened when he heard a loud sound, CNA reported.
Pulled woman back to safety
There, he saw the woman climbing out of the car. Since she was dry, it indicated that the sinkhole wasn’t filled with water at that moment.
“I immediately said that we had to rescue her,” CNA quoted Subbiah, who is a foreman, as saying. The outlet further reported that other workers wanted to go into the sinkhole, but he suggested that they throw a rope down instead. He reportedly told them: “If you go down, you also cannot come up.”
Then they threw a nylon rope to the woman and pulled her to safety. The woman told them that she was alone in the car and asked to make a phone call to her daughter. Subbiah then lent her a phone.
Ordeal lasted around five minutes
As per reports, the entire rescue operation took just five minutes. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said on Facebook that the woman was already rescued by workers before their team arrived on the scene.
This correction came after the national water agency, PUB, had initially stated in a Facebook post that the woman was rescued by the SCDF.
“The person that SCDF conveyed to the hospital yesterday was rescued by workers at the site before our arrival. We will be reaching out to the workers to commend them for their bravery and prompt action in saving a life,” SCDF said on Facebook.
‘I was scared, but…’
Subbiah said that although he was scared, but kept his fear aside and decided to rescue the woman anyhow. “I was scared, but every feeling was that this woman must be rescued first. (At the end of everything), I felt thankful that we had saved a life.”
He added, “To me, the fact that someone had fallen in – no matter what happened, we had to rescue her as quickly as possible. That was our thinking, and that was the determination and urgency with which we rescued her.
The woman was then rushed to the hospital by SCDF and is now able to walk. She has been undergoing further check-ups.
Giant sinkhole in Singapore
A giant sinkhole opened up next to a PUB worksite, near the junction of Tanjong Katong Road South and Mountbatten Road at about 5 pm on Saturday. A dramatic video of the same was all over social media.
After the woman and her car fell into it, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) closed the road until further notice for repair works. The initial investigations into the incident suggested that there is no impact on nearby buildings and that PUB has also isolated the affected water mains.