CISARUA (AFP) — A landslide killed at least eight people and more than 80 are missing on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Saturday, a disaster official said.
Triggered by heavy rainfall, it struck two villages in Java’s West Bandung region at around 2:30 a.m. and buried residential areas.
Abdul Muhari, a spokesperson for the national disaster agency, or BNPB, confirmed that eight people were killed.
“As of Saturday 10:30 a.m., dozens of residents were reported safe, and 82 people were still being searched for,” he said in a statement.
The disaster follows flooding and landslides late last year that killed around 1,200 people and displaced more than 240,000 in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, according to official figures.
Environmentalists and experts have pointed to the role forest loss played in the flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages.
West Bandung’s mayor Jeje Ritchie Ismail told reporters that the military, police and volunteers were assisting in the search for the missing.
However, he warned that the terrain was extremely difficult and that the ground remained unstable.
The local search and rescue agency said it was conducting manual excavation, spraying the soil with water pumps and using drones to search for the victims.