UPDATE: Police have confirmed that the body found in the driver's seat of the SUV fished out of the sea is that of Moey Yun Peng. The body was found intact and strapped into the seat.
GEORGE TOWN: The SUV that fell off the Penang Bridge has been retrieved.
Rescue personnel started the actual operation to hoist the vehicle out of the water at around 5.45pm today, and took about 20 minutes to bring it up onto the bridge itself.
The vehicle, which was in a badly-mangled state, was hoisted using four cables attached to a crane.
The recovery team grew solemn upon seeing that a lifeless body, believed to be 20-year-old Moey Yun Peng, inside the mangled car.
Initially, the first harness that divers strapped around the car underwater snapped before the wreck could even surface.
The divers then went down a second time with a larger harness, and were successful this time.
“We had to wait until the tide was at the lowest and the current slowed down, before we could safely dive in and strap the car,” said one of the recovery personnel on the bridge, who declined to be named.
The wreckage was submerged at a depth of 15m, about 15m away from where it went over the barrier.
The white Mazda CX-5 plunged into the sea after a collision with a black Toyota Vios at 2.54am on Sunday.
Scores of curious onlookers had also gathered around the vicinity of the rescue operation.
