Efforts to search 15 people who remain missing following Tuesday’s landslide near a tea plantation in Tenjolaya village in the West Java regency of Bandung will end on Monday, officials say.
The decision to halt the search efforts was agreed upon during a meeting attended by Bandung Regent Obar Sobarna, Bandung police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Imran Yunus, president director of PT Chakra Perkebunan Dewata tea plantation Rachmat Badruddin, local ulema and families of the victims on Sunday.
“We set the deadline for the search and rescue for Monday noon. Tomorrow we will hold a mass prayer for those killed in the disaster,” Obar said as quoted by kompas.com.
Families of the victims expressed their acceptance of the decision, including Udin Tajudin, whose daughter Suminar and granddaughter Risma have remain missing.
Asep Kurnia, however, criticized the search team for their failure to recover his brother Ahmad Nuryadin and four of his nephews.
The search team has unearthed 29 bodies from the mudslide. Efforts to locate the remaining victims have been disrupted by frequent rainfalls.
