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Three workers dead, 11 missing in landslide at Penang building site

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Rescuers search for victims of the landslide at a construction site in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Photo: AFP

Three foreign workers were killed and 11 others were missing after a landslide at a building site in George Town, capital of the northwest Malaysian state of Penang, authorities said on Saturday.

The bodies of two Indonesians and one worker from Myanmar were pulled from the debris, while two others escaped with light injuries, officials said.

Rescuers search for victims of the landslide at a construction site in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Photo: AFP
Rescuers search for victims of the landslide at a construction site in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Photo: AFP
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“Now the problem we are facing is we need to excavate a 35-metre heap of earth. We have deployed a K9 unit with three dogs to search for victims,” Penang fire and rescue department director Saadon Mokhtar said.

Rescuers search for victims of the landslide at a construction site in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Photo: AFP
Rescuers search for victims of the landslide at a construction site in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Photo: AFP
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Most of those trapped were believed to be foreign workers from Indonesia and Bangladesh, including Rohingyas, he said. One Malaysian, the construction site supervisor, was believed to be buried as well.

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