IPOH, Jan 11 – A limestone outcrop collapsed, leaving two visitors seriously injured and a security guard trapped beneath boulders at the Perak Cave Temple in Jalan Kuala Kangsar today.
Fire and Rescue Department personnel led 16 other visitors were led to safety at 4.50pm – more than an hour after the mishap.
The security guard, in his 20s, who works at the temple, sustained fractures in the legs.
Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said a search and rescue operation had been put on hold pending the arrival of police tracker dogs from Kuala Lumpur.
"It is very risky to look for the victim who is trapped beneath the boulders. We believe he is a security guard as his motorcycle is still in the vicinity," he told reporters after visiting the scene.
The visitors were ascending the steps to the limestone cave when the incident occurred, causing the steps and the bridge linking it to collapse at 3.15pm. Eight minutes later, a visitor alerted the department with his mobile phone.
Mohammad Nizar said the cave temple management had been asked to seal the area until it could be declared safe.
It is learned that the incident was the first at the cave which houses a temple built about 40 years ago.
In 1973, 27 squatters at a cave in the Gunung Cheruh limestone hill were buried alive when part of the outcrop collapsed. – Bernama
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