Five burnt to death in crash near Menora Tunnel
KUALA KANGSAR - Five individuals were killed in an accident involving a car and a trailer lorry at KM245.2 of the North-South Expressway northbound, near the Menora Tunnel on Wednesday.
Preliminary information indicated that in the incident which happened around 12.52am, all the victims were trapped inside the two vehicles which caught fire.
The cause of the accident and the identities of the victims were yet to be identified.
Kuala Kangsar fire and rescue station head Ahmad Izuwan Zakaria when contacted said as of 4am, efforts to extract the victims out of the vehicles were still underway.
"The five victims including the driver and passenger of the car were pronounced dead by medical officers," he said.
According to him, the car which its type was unidentified and the trailer lorry transporting a load of steel both were 90 per cent burnt "However, the driver of the trailer was reported to have escaped unhurt," he said.
The rescue operation was also assisted by personnel from the Meru Raya, Kamunting and Ipoh fire and rescue stations.
Several videos of the incident which were captured by highway users showing the raging fire followed by explosions surfaced on social media.
The situation made it difficult for the public to help rescue the trapped victims.
Meanwhile, highway concessionaire PLUS Malaysia Bhd in a tweet said the accident had resulted in all northbound lanes and southbound right lanes being blocked.
The contra flow was activated and traffic was slow at 2.5 kilometres northbound while the southbound traffic was slow at 2.0 kilometres.
