Search begins following Flores landslides

A worker uses a bulldozer to clear mud from a road in Ruteng, Indonesia. PHOTO: AFP

Rescue teams have been sent by air to help find dozens of people still missing after deadly landslides buried villages in eastern Indonesia, officials said yesterday.

The landslides and flash floods on Flores island on Saturday killed at least 32 people, and distraught families reported another 38 were missing, disaster relief coordinator Lazarus said.

"By this afternoon ... we have found two more bodies," he said, referring to finds that pushed the toll to 32 on the island, which lies 1,700km east of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

A key road running into areas affected by the landslides remained partially cut off, impeding relief and rescue operations, Lazarus said.

Officials said search teams and doctors, along with medicine, body bags and tonnes of food, flew yesterday to Ruteng, a town along the road lying some 35km from the buried villages.

Ruteng, was jolted by a moderate earthquake yesterday, but no damage or casualties have been reported.

Isidorus, a disaster relief official, said some repairs had been made the damaged road but that aid and relief vehicles were still struggling to use it to reach the affected areas.

He said relief efforts were focused on two villages, Gapong and Goreng Meni, where the bulk of those missing were buried.

Relief coordinators said there was an urgent need for items such as tents, raincoats, mosquito nets and lamps in the disaster zone. The rescue operation is being coordinated from the Flores town of Kupang.

About 40 local policemen were sent to an area near Ruteng to help with the effort, local police officer Pagade said.

The death toll was put at 40 soon after the tragedy, with some 80 missing, but was revised down yesterday.

Some houses on Flores were said to have been washed away by flash floods after days of heavy downpours.

The landslides destroyed many rice fields, which could lead to local food shortages, and knocked out telephone lines.