Indonesian landslide kills dozens, wipes away houses

A landslide that crashed on to a hilly village on Indonesia's main island of Java buried 30 houses and killed at least 15 people, officials say.

کد خبر: ۸۶۵۸۵۴

تاریخ: ۱۲ دی ۱۳۹۷ - ۰۹:۲۲

The landslide plunged down surrounding hills just before sunset on Monday in Sirnaresmi village in West Java's Sukabumi district.

Sixty people who lost their homes were forced to move to a temporary shelter, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Television images showed relatives wailing as they watched rescuers pull a mud-caked body from a devastated hamlet. It was placed in a blue bag and taken away for burial.

Authorities struggled to bring tractors and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads after torrential rains sent mud and rocks crashing on to the hilly hamlets. Hundreds of police, soldiers and residents dug through the debris with their bare hands, shovels and hoes as heavy rain hindered their efforts.

"Lack of equipment, bad weather and a blackout hampered our rescue efforts for those who are still missing and feared dead," Nugroho said.

Made Oka Astawa, head of the operations division at the National Search and Rescue Agency, said the six bodies were found under four metres of mud with the help of two excavators that managed to reach the devastated area.

Astawa said rescuers also pulled out four injured people, including an infant who died in a hospital. Twenty villagers are still believed to be missing.

He said the search effort was halted late on Tuesday due to darkness and heavy rains that made the landslide areas unstable. The operation is to be resumed early on Wednesday.

The landslide occurred during New Year's Eve celebrations.