At least 15 people were killed and more than dozens injured after a landslide caused by incessant rains struck Serasan Island, Riau Islands Province—one of the outermost islands in Indonesia.
The landslide occurred late Monday morning, following heavy rainfall. Authorities said that the death toll might continue to rise as search and rescue operations progress.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari, citing local officials on Riau Islands, said that “11 body bags had been filled” and “50 people are estimated missing”. He added that rescue officials are facing difficulty in accessing the far-flung island.
“Normally it takes five hours by fast boat. Tomorrow the National Disaster Mitigation Agency will deploy a helicopter to speed up the logistics delivery process,” he was quoted as saying.
Local media reports showed that the landslide flattened and fully covered the houses that were near the edge of a cliff on Serasan island, between Borneo and mainland Malaysia.
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According to Riau Islands Disaster Mitigation Agency’s spokesperson Junainah, the affected areas have been cut off from the main communication network and hence making it difficult to receive the latest information on the ground.
“The weather is unpredictable. The wind is strong and the waves are currently high,” the official was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) has issued early weather warnings for moderate to heavy rainfall accompanied by lightning across the region through March 7.
Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, aggravated in some places by deforestation, and prolonged torrential rain has caused flooding in different areas of the archipelago nation.
Floods in Banjar district, in the Indonesian part of Borneo, has inundated more than 17,000 houses and disrupted lives for a month.
(With inputs from agencies)
