[9][10] On 23 August 2024, an Indian woman named Vijayalakshmi Gali (aged 48), who was from Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, India, was believed to be residing in Kuala Lumpur on a tourist visa.

She was on her way to a nearby Hindu temple with her friend and was walking along the road of Jalan Masjid India, when the tiled floor that she stepped on suddenly fell in, leaving a square-shaped hole over an 8-metre-deep sinkhole where a broken sewerage pipe sits at the bottom.

[17][18] On 25 August, Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim expressed his sympathy and condolences to the victim's family and instructed them to go to the Kuala Lumpur City Hall for a meeting.

A Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department official said the water level of the sewerage system in question was relatively low, although it was flowing rapidly.

[21][22][23] On 27 August, in an effort to support the rescue operation, a Singaporean waste management company, Jetters Incz Pte Ltd, has offered their assistance voluntarily and free of charge to search for the missing victim.

Residents in sinkhole-prone areas of Kuala Lumpur such as Brickfields call on authorities to publish the city’s underground mapping system to stay informed about the infrastructure beneath their neighbourhoods.

However political MP's in Malaysia have urged authorities to release the preliminary report on the sinkhole and to implement a mapping system to safeguard residents in vulnerable areas.

[34] Deputy director-general of Operations Datuk Ahmad Izram Osman said the obstruction was detected by the K9 unit dogs named Denti and Frankie which were deployed at the site on Tuesday (27 August) afternoon, along with camera surveillance.

[36][37][38] At 11.20 pm MST time, a crane was seen arriving at the scene, extracting an object from the sinkhole and deploying high-powered pumps with capacities of 10,000 and 20,000 litres to drain water from the sewer channel.

On the early morning of 30 August, the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia (JBPM) attempt to locate Vijayalakshmi Gali by exploring a nearby sewer channel has once again ended in failure.

Earlier that early morning reporters saw two scuba divers from the JBPM Northern Region Academy began descending into the sewer channel at roughly 4am MST time to reach a suspected backlog area approximately 44 metres from the incident site.

Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) said in a statement today that soil tests will be conducted around Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Masjid India to identify locations and road safety around the sinkhole area.

Based on photos and videos taken of the Jalan Masjid India site, last Friday's incident could be associated with utilities, IEM president Jeffrey Chiang Choong Luin said on Sunday.

There have been several similar incidents in Kuala Lumpur in the past few years, but they may not have been reported as the cave-ins “didn’t swallow people or cars”, added Dr Lim.

[64] Dr Nor Shahidah Mohd Nazer who is an expert in geological engineering and soil mechanics from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), said the situation was most likely exacerbated by heavy precipitation that the city experienced earlier, leading to ground saturation and fast flow of underground water.

The DBKL administers announced in a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday (28 August) that the cancellation was in respect of the victim and a number of recent incidents around the city of Kuala Lumpur.

[75][76] Mayor of Kuala Lumpur Maimunah Mohd Sharif and Minister Zaliha Mustafa assured authorities and citizens stating that "KL is still safe."