Torrential downpours triggered a landslide on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Friday, killing at least 17 people and leaving nearly 100 others missing, with persistent rain hampering rescue efforts, officials said yesterday.
Hundreds of rescuers were digging with shovels through mud and rubble after the landslide buried scores of houses in the village of Jemblung in central Java late on Friday, Indonesia’s national disaster agency said.
The landslide swept down a hillside in the village, sparing only two houses, a correspondent said.
Photo: AFP
“The rescue team have found 17 bodies,” agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told reporters, adding that 11 others were badly injured and rescuers were searching for 91 people still missing.
The agency said that 200 rescuers and 500 volunteers had joined the search for the missing.
Heavy excavation equipment was also brought to the area to speed up the rescue work, which had to be halted yesterday afternoon as fresh downpours sparked fears of more landslides.
Eyewitnesses said they heard a “thundering sound” as the ground shook when the landslide came crashing down and buried the tiny village.
“I ran carrying my daughter to higher ground, and I was crying because I could hear people calling out for help from below,” said Bini, who — like many Indonesians — goes by one name.
Her husband and 14-year-old son are still missing.
Rescue efforts have been slow because the ground was still unstable, authorities said.
Bad telephone reception in the area has made coordinating rescuing efforts difficult, officials added.
The search-and-rescue agency said that the operation would only resume once the rain stopped.
If the downpours persist, the search would resume early today, it added.
“We pray to God that we can still find survivors,” Agus Haryono, head of central Java’s search-and-rescue agency, told reporters.
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