Indonesia landslide death toll hits 32; 22 still missing

This aerial photo released by Indonesia's ɫֱ Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, shows a village affected by landslide on Serasan Island, Natuna regency, Indonesia. Rescuers in the remote Indonesian islands are searching for people who are believed to be buried in their houses by landslides that tore through villages after torrential rains and killed a number of people. (BNPB via AP)

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Rescue workers recovered more bodies buried under tons of mud following a landslide that crashed onto a hilly village on Indonesia’s remote Natuna islands, bringing the death toll to 32, officials said Thursday.

The landslide, triggered by torrential downpours, plunged down surrounding hills on Monday, burying 30 houses in Genting village on a tiny remote island in the Natuna archipelago at the edge of the South China Sea, the ɫֱ Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement.

Authorities have deployed nearly 700 rescuers, including police and military, with heavy equipment to search for 22 people still missing who were apparently trapped in houses that were buried under the landslide, which was 4 meters (13 feet) deep, said Abdul Rahman, who heads Natuna's search and rescue agency.

“Improved weather allowed us to recover more bodies,” Rahman said in a video statement.

Eight people were pulled out alive with injuries, three of whom are in critical condition, ɫֱ Disaster Management Agency chief Suharyanto said Thursday. They were rushed late Monday to a hospital in Pontianak city on Borneo island, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Genting, but one person died at sea on the way.

The search and rescue operation had been hampered by heavy rains around the disaster site. Weather had forced the search effort to be halted several times, while downed communications lines and electricity also have impeded the operation, said Suharyanto who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name.

“We are doing our best to find the missing victims,” Suharyanto said, adding that sniffer dogs were also being mobilized in the search.

Two helicopters and several vessels carrying rescuers, medical teams and relief supplies, including tents, blankets and food arrived on the island from Jakarta and nearby islands on Wednesday.

Monday’s landslide displaced about 1,300 people who were taken to four temporary shelters, Suharyanto said. Authorities feared the death toll could still rise.

“Relief supplies have reached those in need so far,” he said.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains close to rivers.

In November 2022, a landslide triggered by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake killed at least 335 people in West Java’s Cianjur city, about a third of them children.

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