Highland Towers collapse
Remaining of the Highland Towers in 2012.
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| Time | 1:35 pm MST (Saturday Afternoon) |
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| Date | December 11, 1993 |
| Location | Bukit Antarabangsa, Taman Hillview, Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia |
| Cause | Landslide caused by continuous rainfall over 2 weeks |
| Deaths | 48; one of them was rescued alive (Shizue Nakajima) but died in hospital because of her injuries. |
The Highland Towers collapse was an apartment building collapse that occurred on 11 December 1993 in Taman Hillview, Ulu Klang, Selangor, Malaysia. The collapse of Block 1 of the apartments caused the deaths of 48 people and led to the complete evacuation of the remaining two blocks due to safety concerns. On 11 December 2010, coinciding with the 17th anniversary of the incident, AETN's History Channel showed an hour-long documentary on the tragedy, with accounts from the victims, their families and former residents of the Highland Towers.
The Highland Towers consist of three similar 12-storey blocks, built in phases between 1974 and 1982 at the western base of a steeply sloped hill which was later terraced extensively in the early 1980s. Each block was respectively named:
A swimming pool was located between northwest side of Block 2 and northeast rear of Block 3. Block 1 collapsed after 10 continuous days of rainfall led to a landslide after the retaining wall behind the Block 1 of Highland Tower's car park destroyed.
These towers were home to affluent middle-class families; a sizeable percentage of the residents were expatriates. The Highland Towers were notorious in the 1980s and early 1990s for being a popular spot for the wealthy people to hide their mistresses.
Behind the Highland Towers was a small stream of water known as East Creek. East Creek flowed into the site of the Highland Towers before the construction of Highland Towers ,so a pipe system was built to divert the stream to bypass the Highland Towers.
In 1991, a new housing development project, known as Bukit Antarabangsa Development Project, commenced construction on the hilltop located behind the Highland Towers. The hill was cleared of trees and other land-covering plants, exposing the soil to land erosion that is the leading factor of causing landslides.
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