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Secondary landslides hamper Sukabumi rescue efforts
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Grim task: Residents flee their homes as rescue workers search for survivors at the site of a landslide in Sukabumi, West Java, on Tuesday. The landslide, which was triggered by heavy rain, left at least 15 people dead and dozens missing. (AFP/-)
S
econdary landslides are impeding search and rescue efforts at a landslide that caused fatalities in Sukabumi, West Java, where 20 people are still missing after 66 were saved, including three with serious injuries.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the search and rescue team had to deal with four secondary landslides in the area on Tuesday that were triggered by torrential rain.
"The fragile soil is quite dangerous for the team, especially when it rains,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Due to the risk, he said, the team had to stop their activity earlier and would have to continue this morning.
He added that the disaster area had been marked as a zone prone to landslides on the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation map, which showed land movement risks in Sukabumi.
Thirty-three subdistricts in Sukabumi are categorized as prone to landslides, meaning that land movement could occur during strong rainfall, especially in areas near river valleys and precipices or by clifftop roads.
Nugroho noted that by Tuesday night, at least 15 people had been found dead, 20 people were missing and 30 houses had been buried by the landslide.
Meanwhile, Kasbani, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, said he had deployed the land movement response team to the site to conduct disaster evaluations, assess the risk of secondary landslides and provide technical advice for the rescue effort. (ggq)
