Four more bodies of victims recovered

GEORGE TOWN: Four more bodies of foreign workers were extracted from the rubble of a landslide at a construction site here – raising the death toll to seven with three more listed as missing by rescuers.

Two of them have been identified as Bangladeshi nationals Mithu Hossain, 30, and Mustak Hossain, 25, who were found seconds apart at 12.15pm yesterday by the canine units.

As of 6pm, hundreds of rescue workers from 12 government enforcement agencies, including the elite SMART (search and rescue) division and one nongovernmental organisation continued to search for the remaining victims of the tragedy at Jalan Bukit Kukus.

State fire and rescue department director Saadon Mokhtar, who is coordinating the mission, confirmed that it has now been reclassified as a search and recovery operation as hopes dim for those who remain missing.

Compiling the number of victims is complicated, as some of the missing workers may be illegals; said northeast district police head ACP Che Zaimani Che Awang.

“They may have fled the scene, so we ask those who were working at the time of the landslide to report back to their employer.”

Zaimani said to ascertain the actual number, the workers and the contractors need to cooperate fully with the authorities.

Saadon said the operation will continue into the third night after it was suspended on Saturday due to bad weather and soft soil.

The 1.55pm landslide was triggered by a series of downpours in the state since early last week.

“I was taking a rest in the living area of the kongsi while my husband was at the television corner when the landslide hit,” Nor Azizah, whose husband Subairi is among the missing, told Bernama.

Recalling moments before the tragedy she said at that time it had stopped raining.

“Suddenly I heard a loud rumbling sound and within seconds the landslide hit our quarters and I was half-buried in the mud,” she said.

“My husband fell and after that he was no where to be seen. I was helped out of the rubble by five individuals,” the 24-year-old Cambodian woman said at the Penang Hospital.

Nor Azizah, who has only been here for three months, said on that day they were just lazing around as her husband was not working.