Two Fatal Landslides Strike North Sumatra & West Java

Torrential rain on Wednesday in North Sumatra and West Java triggered two fatal landslides that killed 11 people, police said. 

Eight gold miners, who were working illegally, were killed after they were buried by a landslide while working in a gold mine concession operated by the state-owned Aneka Tambang in Nanggung, Bogor on Wednesday, Nanggung police chief, Adj.Cmr. Nyoman Suparta said.

Nyoman said the victims were identified as Mama, 50 and his sons; Ididng,20, and Yayan, 28. Other victims were identified as Jana, 32, Amir, 52, Ahmad 28, Dedi, 31 and Nurdin, 20.

“All of the victims were the residents of Cianaga village, Kabandungan, Sukabumi,” Nyoman said on Friday.

The men were working inside a tunnel when the walls collapsed. All eight victims have been recovered from the site and returned to their families.

Nyoman said police had experienced difficulties in securing the site from opportunistic individual miners because of the scale of the site.

In Sibolga, North Sumatra, three people died and three others were seriously injured after a landslide buried two homes in Aek Parombunan village, South Sibolga.

“The downpour was very heavy before the landslide happened, we heard the thunder shortly before the landslide,” Ririn, who lived next door to the victims, said on Friday.

Three siblings identified as Alpi,14, Annum, 11 and Darma, 10 were found dead by first responders.

“They were at home when the hill behind their home collapsed, they didn’t have time to save themselves,” Ririn said.

Three other people were rushed to Ferdinand Lumban Tobing general hospital in Sibolga with serious injuries.

Last month four people were killed in the South Bogor subdistrict of Bogor, West Java.

Previously in February, 11 people died and several were injured after a landslide hit Papua. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said the landslides occurred in three separate districts in the province: North Jayapura, Abepura and South Jayapura,

At least 40 houses were damaged while 15 others were severely damaged during the disaster.

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