CISARUA, Indonesia: Indonesian rescuers resumed searching on Sunday (Jan 25) for around 80 people missing in a deadly landslide, after the mission coordinator said operations had to be suspended overnight due to harsh weather.
Triggered by heavy rain, the landslide barrelled into villages in Java’s West Bandung region early Saturday morning, burying residential areas and forcing dozens of people to evacuate their homes.
At least nine people were killed and around 80 are still missing, the local search and rescue agency confirmed on Saturday, warning that the figures were provisional.
The rain forced rescue efforts to pause overnight, mission coordinator Ade Dian Permana said in a statement.
But operations resumed on Sunday morning as the rain subsided, an AFP reporter saw.
Rescuers, helped by the military, police and volunteers, have been excavating manually.
They are also deploying drones and canine units to scour the area for victims, according to the national rescue agency.
West Bandung’s mayor warned on Saturday that the terrain was extremely difficult and the ground remained unstable.
Floods and landslides are common across the vast archipelago during the rainy season, which typically runs from October to March.
The disaster comes after tropical storms and intense monsoon rains late last year triggered flooding and landslides that killed around 1,200 people and displaced more than 240,000 in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, according to official figures.
Environmentalists, experts and the government have pointed to the role forest loss played in the flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages.
The government filed multiple lawsuits following the Sumatra floods, seeking more than $200 million in damages against six firms.
This month, torrential rains battered Indonesia’s Siau island, causing a flash flood that killed at least 16 people.
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