At least 11 people have died and around 80 are missing after a landslide buried homes in Java’s West Bandung region, forcing villagers to flee.
Indonesia: Indonesian rescuers resumed searching on Sunday (Jan 25) for around 80 people missing in a deadly landslide, after operations had to be suspended overnight due to harsh weather.
Triggered by heavy rain, the landslide barrelled into villages in Java’s West Bandung region early Saturday morning, burying residential areas.
At least 11 people were killed and around 80 are still missing, many feared buried under mud, rocks and uprooted trees.
About 230 residents living near the site have been evacuated to temporary government shelters.
Rescue workers retrieved two more bodies on Sunday morning, bringing the death toll to 11, according to Ade Dian Permana from the search and rescue office.
Videos released on Saturday by the country’s search and rescue agency, known as Basarnas, showed rescuers using farm tools and bare hands to pull a mud-caked body from the ground and placing it in an orange bag to take away for burial.
Heavy equipment and excavators were mostly idle because the ground was too soft and unstable.
“If the slope does not stabilise, crews are prepared to continue manually,” Permana said, estimating the height of the mounds of mud to be up to 5 metres.
“Some homes are buried up to the roof level,” he added.
Visiting the area on Sunday, Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka pledged that authorities would take measures to prevent similar disasters. He urged the local authorities in West Java and West Bandung to “address the issue of land conversion in disaster-prone areas”, including ways to reduce risks.
Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii confirmed to reporters after visiting the devastated Pasir Langu village with Gibran, that the terrain condition and bad weather continue to complicate search operations on Sunday.
“We are at the mercy of the weather, and the slide is still mud … flowing and unstable,” Syafii said.
“With the area this wide, we’ll use every asset we have … drones, K‑9 teams and ground units, but safety comes first.”
Floods and landslides are common across the vast archipelago during the rainy season, which typically runs from October to March.
The disaster comes after tropical storms and intense monsoon rains late last year triggered flooding and landslides that killed around 1,200 people and displaced more than 240,000 in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, according to official figures.
Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-resumes-search-landslide-java-west-bandung-5881521
