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View all search resultsFive killed after landslides strike North Sumatra’s Deli Serdang
Dotra Purba, 50, a resident of the village, said heavy rain had lashed the area since Tuesday afternoon, following nearly three months of dry weather.
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Searching for life: A joint search and rescue team conducts a search on April 8 for victims of a landslide in Sembahe village, Sibolangit district, Deli Serdang, North Sumatra. The Deli Serdang Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) reported five dead and one injured following the landslide that occurred on Tuesday. (Antara/Yudi Manar)
F
ive people were killed after a heavy downpour triggered a landslide in five villages in Sibolangit district, Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra on Tuesday night.
The landslides struck at around 10 p.m., tearing through steep hillsides and sending debris up to 25 meters wide across the area.
Sembahe Village, located about 35 kilometers from North Sumatra’s capital Medan, was the hardest hit. One church and at least seven homes were severely damaged as soil and rocks swept through residential areas.
Dotra Purba, 50, a resident of the village, said heavy rain had lashed the area since Tuesday afternoon, following nearly three months of dry weather. Power outages were reported shortly before nightfall, hours before the landslides struck.
“At around 8:30 p.m., I heard a very loud rumble. When I checked, part of my house had already been buried under more than a meter of soil. The door was blocked, so I escaped through a window,” he said on Wednesday as quoted by Kompas.id.
He said panic spread as residents rushed out of their homes and gathered at a nearby roadside eatery for shelter. They remained there for hours, unwilling to return as the rain continued and the slopes remained unstable.
Once the rain eased, villagers began searching the area. They found one injured survivor and discovered that five residents were still trapped inside buried homes.
