Indonesia landslide kills 15 people, leaves 34 missing

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Rescuers recovered six more bodies buried under tons of mud from a landslide that crashed onto a hilly village on Indonesia’s main island of Java, bringing the death toll to 15, officials said on Tuesday.

The landslide that plunged down surrounding hills just before sunset on Monday buried 30 houses in Sirnaresmi village in West Java’s Sukabumi district. Sixty people who lost their homes were forced to move to a temporary shelter, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

He said more than 500 rescuers have retrieved eight bodies from mounds of mud and pulled out four injured people, including an infant who died in the hospital. They are still searching for 34 villagers said to still be missing.

Authorities struggled to get tractors and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads as heavy rain was hampering search efforts, Nugroho said. Television footage showed hundreds of police, soldiers and residents digging through debris with their hands, shovels and hoes.

“Lack of equipment, bad weather and blackout hampered our rescue efforts for those who are still missing and feared dead,” said Nugroho.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains near rivers.

The landslide occurred during New Year’s Eve celebrations less than two weeks after a volcano eruption and tsunami killed 437.