GEORGE TOWN: A family's desperate dash for safety turned into tragedy when a landslide struck their home in Taman Seri Rambai, Paya Terubong, killing 73-year-old doctor Wong Kar Lin.
Wong's mother-in-law, Wong Poh Lim, in her 80s, was showering upstairs when her daughter, Chang Mei Nuo, 68, alerted her to the landslide.
Poh Lim said they rushed downstairs to escape, only to discover Wong had been crushed by concrete in the kitchen.
"We were shocked and immediately ran out to save ourselves. Everything happened so quickly," she said when met at the scene.
The tragedy was made all the more painful by the decades Wong had spent living with the family, whom Poh Lim described as a good son-in-law.
Poh Lim said only the three of them were home when the landslide struck, while the couple's four children lived separately.
Although Poh Lim and Chang escaped without injuries, the elderly woman remained shaken by the loss of someone who had been part of the family for more than 30 years.
For Chang, the tragedy was an unimaginable loss.
Still grieving the death of her husband, she described the incident as the first of its kind since they began living in the area.
She said she was relieved that Wong's body was recovered intact from beneath the soil and concrete.
The landslide struck the house at 8.36am.
Fire and Rescue Department personnel extricated Wong's body around 11.21am.
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