Disaster agency Natuna lowered the death toll to 10 from 11 on Tuesday morning, despite fears it could rise. Its website said rescuers pulled eight injured people from the landslides, 4 of whom were in critical condition and were taken to a hospital within the town of Pontianak on the island of Borneo, about 285 km (180 miles).
Malaysia bans camping for per week after 21 people die in landslide in Genting Highlands
Malaysia bans camping for per week after 21 people die in landslide in Genting Highlands
The landslides displaced greater than 1,200 people, who were taken to evacuation centers and other shelters.
Images provided by the country’s disaster mitigation agency showed mud and debris from landslides flooding homes near a cliff on the distant island of Serasan. Pieces of metal torn off roofs and fallen trees were visible.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said authorities were still gathering information on the complete scale of casualties and damage in affected areas. He said two helicopters and a number of other ships carrying rescuers and supplies, including tents, blankets, food and medical teams, had flown out of Jakarta and nearby islands.
“The distribution of humanitarian aid has been difficult since the injured and displaced are scattered and difficult to achieve,” Muhari said, and search and rescue operations were hampered by rainy weather across the crash site, severed communication lines and a scarcity of heavy equipment.
Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a series of 17,000 islands where hundreds of thousands of individuals live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains near rivers.
In November 2022, a landslide triggered by a magnitude 5.6 earthquake killed at the very least 335 people within the West Java city of Cianjur, including a few third of them children.
12 women died in a landslide in a gold mine in Indonesia
12 women died in a landslide in a gold mine in Indonesia
Indonesia is susceptible to landslides in the course of the rainy season, that are worsened by deforestation in some places, and prolonged heavy rains have caused flooding in various areas of the archipelago country.
In 2020, Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and nearby cities experienced one among the deadliest floods in years after heavy rains triggered landslides. At least 67 people died on this disaster.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
