Rescuers
have pulled more bodies from debris left after a mudslide hit a village in
central Indonesia. Dozens are still missing and hundreds have been displaced by
the disaster.
Deutsche Welle, 14 Dec 2014
Rescue
workers in Indonesia on Sunday continued their search for more than 70 people
left missing after a mudslide two days previously buried 105 houses in the
village of Jemblung in central Java.
"The
rescue team has found 32 bodies ... and is still searching for 76 people buried
in the landslide," National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo
Purwo Nugroho said in a text message.
Sutopo said
25 of the victims had been identified, adding that more than 2,000 people were
taking part in the search. Some 600 people had been forced from their homes and
were being accommodated in temporary shelters at several locations, he said.
President's
visit
The ground
around the disaster site is reportedly still unstable, forcing rescuers to be
careful while digging for fear of causing more mudslides. Sutopo said that
rescue teams had also been hampered by the fact that many roads and bridges
were destroyed.
President
Joko Widodo (seen above in white) visited the area on Sunday, and promised to
relocate the people made homeless by the disaster. He also warned Indonesians
to be "vigilant," saying that there were many other areas in the
country where landslides were a likely event.
Friday's
mudslide in the Barnjarnegara district, some 460 kilometers (285 miles) east of
the capital, Jakarta, was triggered by three days of torrential rains.
Landslides
caused by heavy rains and floods are common in Indonesia during the rainy
season, which runs from November to March. The national disaster estimates that
about half of the countriy's 250 million population lives in areas that are
prone to landslides.
tj/es (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)
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