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NGANJUK, Indonesia: Torrential rains triggered a landslide on Indonesia’s main island of Java, killing at least nine people and leaving 10 others missing, as emergency personnel digging with their bare hands and agricultural tools desperately searched find more victims on Monday (February 15), officials said.
21 people were initially reported missing after the disaster struck a rural area of East Java on Sunday night.
Hundreds of rescuers, including soldiers, police and volunteers, were involved in the search for the missing in Selopuro village in East Java’s Nganjuk district, said National Agency for Disaster Mitigation spokeswoman Raditya Jati.
The Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency said it had found nine bodies, but was still searching for another ten.
The other two people had been rescued.
“We are currently unable to bring heavy equipment to the landslide site. However, we are currently trying to make our way,” the East Java Search and Rescue Agency told AFP in a written statement.
The landslide also severely damaged eight houses, the agency said.
Rescuers found bodies buried under up to 20 feet of mud on Monday, said Nganjuk district chief Novi Rahman Hidayat.
Initially 21 people were reported missing, but three people were rescued after the disaster in a rural area of East Java AFP / BROCHURE
READ: IN FOCUS: Fighting Jakarta’s Devastating Annual Floods
Pasuruan, a town in the same province, was also flooded after a river overflowed due to heavy rains, forcing more than 350 people to flee their homes, the agency added.
Severe flooding has also occurred in many other provinces of the vast archipelago nation in recent days.
Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods each year in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.
