Indonesia landslides kill 10 with dozens still missing

Disaster officials in the remote Natuna regency lowered the death toll on Tuesday morning to 10 from 11 despite fears it could rise

The site’s remote location has complicated rescue efforts, and communications in the area have been cut off by the bad weather

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Rescuers search for victims after a landslide on Serasan Island in Indonesia on Monday. Photo: BNPB via AP

Published: 12:52am, 7 Mar 2023Updated: 12:12pm, 7 Mar 2023

Rescuers were searching for 42 people still missing on Tuesday after two landslides triggered by torrential rains hit villages on an island in Indonesia’s remote Natuna regency, disaster officials said.

Dozens of soldiers, police and volunteers joined the search in the Genting and Pangkalan villages on a remote island surrounded by choppy waters and high waves in the Natuna group at the edge of the South China Sea. There were reports of 42 people trapped in 27 houses that were buried under tons of mud from surrounding hills.

Natuna’s disaster agency lowered the death toll on Tuesday morning to 10 from 11 despite fears it could rise. It said on its website that rescuers pulled eight injured people from the landslides, four of whom were in critical condition and have been rushed to a hospital in Pontianak city on Borneo island, about 285km (180 miles) away.

The landslides displaced more than 1,200 people who were taken to evacuation centres and other shelters.

Pictures provided by the national disaster mitigation agency showed mud and debris from the landslides had inundated houses near a cliff on the remote Serasan Island. Bits of metal torn off roofs and fallen trees were visible.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said authorities were still collecting information about the full scale of casualties and damage in the affected areas. He said two helicopters and several vessels carrying rescuers and relief supplies, including tents, blankets, food and medical teams, have departed from Jakarta and nearby islands.

People inspect the site where a landslide hit a village on Indonesia’s Serasan Island on Monday, killing a number of people. Photo: BNPB via AP

“Distribution of relief supplies has been difficult because the injured and displaced are spread out and hard to reach,” Muhari said, and the search and rescue operation has been hampered by rainy weather around the disaster site, downed communications lines and lack of heavy equipment.