At least seven people died and 82 went missing after a landslide struck Indonesia’s West Java province, officials said on Saturday.
The national disaster mitigation agency said the landslide triggered by heavy rains struck a village in the West Bandung region, southeast of the capital Jakarta.
“The number of missing persons is high so we’ll try and optimise our search and rescue efforts today,” Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the National Search and Rescue Agency, said.
In spite of heavy rain hindering their work, emergency services personnel were able to evacuate at least two dozen people from the affected village, Mr Muhari added.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency had issued a warning of extreme weather for one week from Friday, forecasting heavy rain in West Java, Kompas, a local news outlet reported. The alert also warned of extensive flooding and landslides across the region.
The landslide in West Bandung damaged more than 30 homes, the search and rescue agency said, adding the “debris material buried residential areas, causing fatalities and affecting local residents”.
Authorities said that the landslide hit Pasirlangu village at around 2.30am on Saturday, burying many homes in mud and debris.
Indonesia frequently faces deadly landslides triggered by heavy rainfall. The risk of flooding and extreme rainfall is particularly elevated during the archipelago nation’s wet season, which runs from September to April, according to the weather agency.
At least 30 people died and more than 900 were displaced when landslides triggered by torrential rains struck in two regions of the Central Java province in late November.
