Coast Guard divers using metal detectors searched all day in vain for a car full of people that is believed to have plunged into Arbaeen lake here around dawn Friday. They found only a gearbox that Coast Guard spokesman Col. Saleh Al-Shihri said could possibly be from the sunken car. “There is a chance that the body of the car will be recovered,” Al-Shihri said. But mystery surrounds the incident as conflicting accounts emerged. Sources told Okaz that a lone driver in a Lexus was chasing a car with men and women inside around 6:30 A.M. from south Corniche when the two vehicles crashed and hit the concrete barrier on the flyover across the lake, sending the car full of people plunging into the water. However, Hassan, the brother of the Lexus driver, Turki Assiri, a 23-year-old unemployed Saudi, denied that two cars were involved in the incident. Unconscious Hassan said Turki was unconscious when a Red Crescent ambulance rushed him to King Fahad Hospital after the accident. Hassan claimed he reached the hospital at mid-morning and found Turki conscious and able to recount what had happened. Hassan said Turki told him that no other car was involved when a tire burst caused the Lexus to crash into the concrete barrier. The force of the impact sent the car's gear-box into the water, Hassan cited Turki as saying. Okaz sources contradicted Hassan's statement, saying that police arrested Turki from his home and brought him to the site at around 10:30 A.M. to explain how the crash had happened. The sources said that the Lexus was rendered immobile after the crash and that Turki immediately fled the scene on foot. Eyewitnesses said they saw huge bubbles coming out of the lake right after the crash. Coast Guard boats and divers suspended the search operations at 11:00 P.M after a 16-hour search. Officials said the search will continue Saturday morning. “We are not sure yet if a car really plunged into the lake,” said First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq, deputy spokesman of the Jeddah Police Department, “but one driver involved in the crash was arrested and is being investigated.” Authorities believe there were women in the car that is believed to be resting 10 meters deep in the murky silt of the lake. “We do not know as yet how many passengers were inside the car,” said Muhammad Ba-Jubair, director of the Emergency Department at the Jeddah Health Department. A Coast Guard source who asked not to be identified told Okaz that the car could have fallen into a deep trench in the lake, which is too dangerous for divers to reach. The flyover was closed for a few hours after the crash. The bridge has witnessed a few similar incidents in the last two years. The 290,000 sq. meters Arbaeen Lake originally extended from the Red Sea. In the 1960s, it was clean and good for fishing and swimming. Today, it holds some 1,700,000 cubic meters of sewage water and barely contains any form of marine life. Ten years ago, a huge alligator was spotted in the lake, creating panic for the whole city before it was found and killed several months later. People in the area believe there are many alligators in the lake. It was called the Arbaeen (or the Forty) because Jeddah women in the past used to purify themselves in it after 40 days of childbirth. The government has allocated SR44 million to clean up the scenic lake in the heart of Jeddah. – With additional reporting by Hassan Al
