Firemen raced to rescue a pedestrian who was swallowed up by a sinkhole in Malaysia.

The shopper, believed to be a 48-year-old Indian woman, was walking along the Jalan Masjid India area of Kuala Lumpur when the pavement underneath gave way on August 23 morning.

CCTV footage shows the woman plunging into the 30-foot-deep chasm as shocked onlookers scrambled away.

The Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department said they were alerted at 8:22am local time.

Firemen were at the scene with heavy machinery to excavate fallen slabs of pavement and a portion of a stone bench that also fell underground.

In an afternoon update, local fire department deputy director Rozihan Anwar Mamat said: 'We have conducted a manual search but failed to find the victim. We expect to continue with a more extensive excavation in the subsidence area soon.'

Police said the area will be assessed and will be closed if deemed unsafe. They said in the afternoon they had still not found the woman.