Indonesia resumes search for about 80 missing after landslide kills 10

Indonesian rescuers have resumed searching for some 80 people still missing in a deadly landslide, after the mission coordinator said operations had to be suspended overnight due to harsh weather.

The death toll from Saturday’s landslide in a residential area of West Java province rose to 10 on Sunday, according to state-run media, announcing three more deaths.

Triggered by heavy rain, the landslide barrelled into villages in West Java’s West Bandung early on Saturday morning, burying residential areas and forcing dozens of people to evacuate their homes.

The rain forced rescue efforts to pause overnight, mission coordinator Ade Dian Permana says in a statement, before the operations resumed on Sunday.

Rescuers were hampered on Saturday as unstable terrain and rains hindered them from deploying heavy machinery, Kompas TV reported, citing authorities.

There were multiple reports of floods in West Java, including the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The floods have caused residents in heavily affected areas to evacuate to higher ground or unaffected places.

Resident Dedi Kurniawan (36) says it was the first such landslide he had witnessed in Pasir Langu village in a hilly area of the province about 100km southeast of Jakarta.

“Sometimes we have only small floods from the nearest river, but this time [the landslide] came from the forest,” he told the Reuters news agency.

Harsh conditions

Rescuers, helped by the military, police and volunteers, have been excavating manually.

They are also deploying drones and canine units to scour the area for victims, according to the national rescue agency.

West Bandung’s mayor warned on Saturday that the terrain was extremely difficult and the ground remained unstable.

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 about 1 200 people and displaced more than 240 000 on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, according to official figures.

Environmentalists, experts and the government have pointed to the role forest loss played in the flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages.

The government filed multiple lawsuits following the Sumatra floods, seeking more than $200 million in damages against six firms.

This month, torrential rains battered Indonesia’s Siau island, causing a flash flood that killed at least 16 people.

– Al Jazeera

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