Indonesian rescuers have resumed searching for some 80 people still missing in a deadly landslide, after the mission coordinator said operations had to be suspended overnight due to harsh weather.
The death toll from Saturday’s landslide in a residential area of West Java province rose to 10 on Sunday, according to state-run media, announcing three more deaths.
Triggered by heavy rain, the landslide barrelled into villages in West Java’s West Bandung early on Saturday morning, burying residential areas and forcing dozens of people to evacuate their homes.
The rain forced rescue efforts to pause overnight, mission coordinator Ade Dian Permana said in a statement, before the operations resumed on Sunday.
Rescuers were hampered on Saturday as unstable terrain and rains hindered them from deploying heavy machinery, Kompas TV reported, citing authorities.
There were multiple reports of floods in West Java, including the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The floods have caused residents in heavily affected areas to evacuate to higher ground or unaffected places.
Resident Dedi Kurniawan, 36, said it was the first such landslide he had witnessed in Pasir Langu village in a hilly area of the province about 100km (60 miles) southeast of Jakarta.
“Sometimes we have only small floods from the nearest river, but this time [the landslide] came from the forest,” he told the Reuters news agency.
Credit: aljazeera.com
