Landslides kill 12 in Bali, more rain due
KINTAMANI DISTRICT: Twelve Indonesians, including three children, have been killed on the holiday island of Bali after landslides triggered by heavy rains engulfed several villages, an official said Friday.
Several houses were also buried and badly damaged in the incident, which took place overnight from Thursday to Friday in Kintamani district, on the slopes of the Mt Batur volcano in central Bali.
“The extreme rain that occurred all day on Thursday has triggered landslides in three villages and 12 people have died,” disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Three children, aged one, seven and 10, died in two of the villages. Five people were injured, three of them seriously, and several homes were destroyed.
Members of two families were among those killed in Songan village including a one-year-old boy, his seven-year-old sister and their mother. Four people were killed in Awan village and one person died in Sukawana village.
Local disaster agency officials said villagers had been evacuated from the affected areas — far from the popular beach resorts of southern Bali — and no one else was believed to be missing.
Indra Kalak, an agency official in Bali, said more heavy rain was falling yesterday and people in the area should be aware that the steep slopes meant it was particularly vulnerable to landslides.
The Bali Meteorological Climatology and Geophysics Agency expects that downpours will continue through today in some areas of the popular resort island, such as Bangli, Jembrana, Buleleng, Tabanan, Gianyar and Badung.
“People are encouraged to always be aware of landslides, floods, and cyclones,” said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
Landslides and flooding are common across the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, particularly during the monthslong rainy season which peaks in January and February.
In December, 29 people died and 19 others were left missing when floods and landslides hit Garut in the west of Indonesia’s main island of Java.
Bali, a pocket of Hinduism in Muslimmajority Indonesia, is a popular tourist destination.
It attracts millions of foreign visitors to its palm-fringed beaches every year.