Highland Towers: 32 years of waiting nears its end

For more than three decades, two abandoned concrete towers: Highland Towers have stood quietly in Hulu Klang, Selangor — visible from the road, overgrown, slowly decaying.

Most Malaysians know the name Highland Towers. Far fewer know the full story behind why those buildings have remained standing, empty, for 32 years.

That may finally be changing. On 14 June 2026, a Magistrates’ Court approved an application by the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council to proceed with demolishing the two remaining blocks.

Barring further delay, the structures that have haunted Hulu Klang since 1993 will finally come down before the end of this year.

What happened to Highland Towers on 11 December 1993

Highland Towers originally consisted of three 12-storey blocks built into a hillside in Taman Hillview, Ulu Klang. After ten days of continuous heavy rain, the saturated slope behind the complex gave way.

An estimated 100,000 cubic metres of mud and earth — roughly the weight of 200 Boeing 747 aircraft — pushed against the foundations of Block 1 until they fractured.

At 1.35pm on 11 December 1993, Block 1 collapsed sideways down the hillside. The building came down in seconds, burying everyone inside under tons of rubble and debris.

Rescue teams worked for twelve days. In the end, only two survivors were pulled from the wreckage alive — a young Japanese woman who later died from her injuries, and two others rescued separately.

Forty-eight people died. It remains the worst high-rise tragedy in Malaysian history.

The warnings that went unheeded

The tragedy was not entirely without warning. In the days before the collapse, residents noticed cracks forming in the walls and pavement around the towers. However, no remedial action was taken before disaster struck.

Subsequent engineering investigations identified the underlying causes. The hillside had already been compromised by prior terracing and construction.

Drainage infrastructure proved inadequate, allowing water to accumulate and saturate the slope. A burst pipe further eroded the slope’s foundation.

Engineers also later identified errors in the building’s pile foundation system, which was unable to withstand the lateral pressure created as the hillside gave way.

As a result, the tragedy became a turning point for Malaysian construction policy. Following the collapse, then Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called for strict safety inspections of all skyscrapers and condominiums nationwide.

Subsequently, regulations restricting construction on steep hill slopes were introduced — rules that remain in place today.

The voices behind the Highland Towers tragedy

The investigations explain what went wrong with the building. They say far less about what it cost the people who lived there.

Sasha Bashir was 13 years old when she lost her childhood home at Highland Towers. She had left for a weekend ballet course the day before the collapse and never saw the building standing again.

“I grappled with survivors’ guilt for the first few years,” she said. Decades later, she still feels uneasy whenever the rainy season begins.

Chan Keng Fook, who lived in Block 2 and later became secretary of the Highland Towers Residents Committee, remembers the chaos of that afternoon vividly. His father called him at work, screaming for him to come home.

“The moment I drove up to the apartment, the building was gone,” he recalled, describing the scene of dust and panic that followed.

Meanwhile, Dr Iain Gray, a former resident and trained engineer, described life at Highland Towers before the tragedy as “a vertical kampung” — a tightly knit community where everyone knew each other. He helped in the rescue effort in the days that followed.

Highland Towers: Thirty-two years in limbo

Following the collapse, residents of the two undamaged blocks were evacuated immediately over fears the hillside remained unstable. Structural assessments later deemed both blocks unfit for habitation. They have stood empty ever since.

Over the decades, the abandoned towers fell into disrepair. Vandalism, looting, and natural decay took their toll.

Nearby residents repeatedly complained of trespassers and drug users occupying the site, while the structures became known as one of Malaysia’s most recognisable “haunted” locations — inspiring documentaries and even a 2013 horror film.

Calls for demolition began as early as 2018, when the government proposed converting the site into a public park once the towers came down.

However, unresolved legal issues surrounding ownership — involving both insolvency proceedings and developer-owned units — delayed any action for years.

According to MPAJ deputy president Hasrolnizam Shaari, the council is now coordinating directly with unit owners, the developer, and insolvency representatives to finalise demolition plans.

The estimated cost of bringing down the remaining two blocks is between RM6 million and RM7 million.

“We do not expect the process to take long, as all parties are clear that this is the agreed objective,” Hasrolnizam said. “The demolition process will take place within this year.”

For the families who lost loved ones, and for former residents like Sasha and Chan who still carry the memory of that afternoon, demolition will not undo the tragedy.

However, it may finally offer something that has been missing for 32 years — a sense that this particular chapter has, at last, been allowed to close.

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A memorial at the site continues to serve as a place of remembrance for the 48 victims of the Highland Towers collapse. Annual commemorations are held each December to mark the anniversary.