A screengrab from a video taken at the scene of the incident showing members of the public trying to lift the submerged vehicle from the river.
KUCHING (Jan 1): A pickup truck laden with passengers has fallen into the Batang Lupar River, with all onboard believed to have been killed after it fell off a Triso ferry ramp today.
According to initial reports, the victims consist of a family involving several children, and their identities have not been made known yet at time of writing.
A Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson said they received a distress call regarding the incident at around 3.14pm.
The spokesperson said Fire and Rescue teams were dispatched from the Saratok and Simunjan stations to carry out a rescue operation.
A live Facebook video depicting the aftermath of the incident has gone viral on social media.
“Through the live video of Facebook account owner Dyg Junailah Leyent, members of the public managed to recover nine bodies with the help of a ferry and a bulldozer.
The seven minute 15 second-long video showed scenes of several men and women, including small children, unconscious with CPR being performed on some of them.
The Fire and Rescue Department are still carrying out a Search and Rescue (SAR) operation at the time of writing.
MORE TO COME