Elderly Malaysia couple trapped in lift for more than 24 hours

IPOH - An elderly couple in Malaysia were stuck in a lift at a shopping mall in Ipoh for more than 24 hours, Malaysian newspapers reported.

Md Dahalan Baki, 74, and his wife, Ahadiyah Zakaria, 70, got stuck in the lift at the Mydin Meru Shopping Mall in Ipoh at 11.30am on Friday (June 30) but were only rescued at 1pm on Saturday, The Star reported.

According to Malaysia's Kosmo newspaper, they had been shopping at a supermarket there for an hour and the incident happened as they took the lift at the three-storey building to leave the supermarket.

The paper said the lift suddenly stopped working shortly after they entered. It reported that the couple were trapped in the lift for 26 hours.

The couple are now so traumatised that they are refusing to speak to anyone - not even to the police.

On Sunday, they declined to talk to reporters who gathered at their residence in Taman Meru 2C.

Their son-in-law, who wanted to be known only as Shahrulnizam, said the couple were still in trauma.

"They have no comments and it would be appreciated if you give my in-laws some space. They are still traumatised by the incident and we have engaged a lawyer to take our next step," he said.

"Even the police came and they did not want to say anything to them," he told reporters.

On Saturday, the couple's daughter had gone to the mall to look for her parents and found her father's car still in the parking lot.

She then went to the lift area with a security guard before hearing her father's voice feebly calling out for help.

The couple were rescued by the Fire and Rescue Department.

They were weak when they came out of the lift and were immediately taken to the hospital for treatment.

A spokesman from Mydin Meru said it was carrying out an internal probe into the matter.

"The branch cannot give any statement at the moment. Our headquarters in Kuala Lumpur is investigating this matter," he said.

Ipoh district police officer Asst Comm Sum Chang Keong confirmed that one of the couple's family members had lodged a police report over the incident.

A check on Sunday showed that all the lifts in the shopping mall were shut down for maintenance work.

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