Indonesia landslides leave eight dead, six missing
19 Feb 2007 03:19:06 GMT Source: Reuters
JAKARTA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Landslides triggered by torrential rain hit two places on Indonesia's main Java island over the weekend, leaving eight people dead and six missing, government officials said on Monday. Eight bodies were pulled out of the muck in a hillside village near the Central Java town of Magelang while rescuers are still trying to find two buried residents, a local official said. "It happened on Sunday morning when they were working together building an irrigation system. They could not anticipate that the land could collapse," said Joko Suhartono from Magelang's public safety office. In West Java province, rescuers have been trying since Saturday to find four miners believed to be buried in a lakeside sand pit in Sukalarang district. "Land collapsed on the lake creating a small tsunami that pulled them in. We have been searching for three days but we have not found anything," officer Agus Suherman from the local police precinct told Reuters, adding one miner survived the ordeal. Landslides occur frequently in Indonesia, where tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides and years of deforestation often means there is little vegetation to hold the soil. Indonesia's rainy season is at its peak in February and may continue for another two months.
