JAKARTA, Indonesia — Two landslides set off by heavy rainfall and unstable soil killed at the least 11 individuals on Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, and left rescue staff looking for survivors, catastrophe officers mentioned Sunday.
Amongst these killed within the landslides in West Java Province had been the pinnacle of a neighborhood catastrophe reduction company and an Indonesian Military captain who had gone to assist rescue survivors from the primary landslide on Saturday afternoon. They had been caught in a second landslide that night.
The landslides additionally destroyed a bridge and reduce off a number of roads within the West Java village of Cihanjuang. Rescuers labored by means of the evening however confronted an pressing want for heavy equipment to assist transfer earth and attain any doable survivors.
“The primary landslide was triggered by excessive rainfall and unstable soil circumstances,” mentioned Raditya Jati, spokesman for the Nationwide Catastrophe Mitigation Company. “Subsequent landslides occurred whereas officers had been nonetheless evacuating victims on the first landslide space.”
Lethal landslides are frequent in Indonesia, the place deforestation and unlawful small-scale gold mining operations usually contribute to unstable soil circumstances.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, had warned in October that the nation may expertise extra flooding and landslides than common due to the periodic climate sample generally known as La Niña.
A neighborhood catastrophe official mentioned that by noon Sunday, rescuers had been nonetheless trying to find out how many individuals had been lacking.