According to Bernama, the men from the department’s diving team, who were fully equipped with scuba gear, descended into the sinkhole at 3.06am in hopes of finding the Indian national who fell into the sinkhole last Friday.

However, less than half an hour later, the two divers were seen being pulled up using a rope by the other team members before being decontaminated and cleaned.

It is understood that the divers were unable to get close to the location where the object is believed to have been stuck because of strong undercurrents in the sewage tunnel, Bernama said.

It said that until 4.30am there had been no official statement from the department to media representatives who had been waiting since midnight to report the outcome of the latest search and rescue efforts.

Yesterday, deputy director-general of operations Ahmad Izram Osman said the obstruction was detected by the K9 unit dogs Denti and Frankie, which were deployed at the site on Tuesday afternoon along with camera surveillance

“The cameras also indicate an obstruction, which suggests the victim or some other object may be trapped there, so we want to search that area,” he was reported as saying at the scene.

Following the detection, water and sewage were pumped out late last night.

Today marks the seventh day of the SAR operation, after Vijayaletchumy, 48, from Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, fell into the 8m-deep sinkhole last Friday.