Indonesia resumes search for dozens missing in landslide

JAKARTA

Indonesian rescuers resumed searching on Sunday 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 barreled into villages in Java's West Bandung region early Jan. 24, 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, 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 yesterday morning as the rain subsided.

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.

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.