GEORGE TOWN, Jan 22 — A crane and several boats were deployed early this morning to recover the Mazda sports utility vehicle (SUV) that crashed through the Penang Bridge two days ago, with the body of its driver believed trapped inside.

Marine Police Territory 1 Commander Assistant Commissioner Rosman Ismail said the recovery operation was scheduled for after the morning rush hour, but the boats have been stationed just above the submerged car since 7am.

"We will start bringing up the car using a crane after 9am as per advised by Plus to avoid rush hour on the bridge,” he told reporters.

The SUV was spotted about 15m from the crash site at KM4 of the Penang Bridge and it is submerged about 15m.

The vehicle was detected by sonar device at about 4pm yesterday while the crane to bring it up arrived on the bridge at about 5.45pm.

SAR teams found the car near pillar number 34 under Penang Bridge. — Picture by Opalyn Mok

However, due to strong currents and low visibility, operations to bring up the car were called off at 7.20pm yesterday.

The operations that involved closing a lane on the Penang bridge yesterday brought traffic almost to a standstill.

The SUV driven by 20-year-old college student Moey Yun Peng, crashed through the concrete rail on the 13.5km bridge and plunged into the sea off the bridge after a collision with a Toyota Vios driven by an acquaintance who lost control of his car at about 2.45am Sunday.

Both had been at a birthday party at an entertainment outlet in Chulia Street hours earlier.

Search and rescue operations for the SUV and its missing driver were launched on Sunday and found only yesterday.