Indonesia landslide kills seven, dozens missing

CISARUA, Indonesia: A landslide killed at least seven people and more than 80 are missing on Indonesia’s main island of Java Saturday, a disaster official said.

The landslide triggered by heavy rainfall struck a village in the region of West Bandung at around 2:30 am, damaging houses.

“A landslide occurred in West Bandung Regency, West Java Province, in the early hours of Saturday, killing seven people,” Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the national disaster agency, or BNPB, said.

“As of Saturday 10:30 am, dozens of residents were reported safe, and 83 people were still being searched for,” he added.

Floods and landslides are common in Indonesia during the rainy season, which typically runs from October to March.

Tropical storms and intense monsoon rains pummelled parts of South and Southeast Asia late last year, triggering deadly landslides and floods from the rainforests of Indonesia’s Sumatra to highland plantations in Sri Lanka.

Around 1,200 people died in the Sumatra flood, and more than 240,000 were displaced, according to the BNPB.

Environmentalists and experts have pointed to the role forest loss played in the flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages.

The government this week stripped more than two dozen permits from forestry, mining and hydroelectric companies in Sumatra.

This latest landslide also comes after torrential rains battered Indonesia’s Siau island this month, causing a flash flood that killed at least 16 people.