- Search and rescue teams have found 18 people dead and two missing in a landslide on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
- The head of Makassar Search and Rescue said rescuers recovered about 14 bodies in Makare village and four bodies in South Makare on Sunday.
- According to officials, two people remain missing as fog and rain have made the search difficult.
Search and rescue teams have found 18 people dead in a landslide on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island and continue to search for two missing people, authorities said on Monday.
Messianus Bekabel, head of Makassar Search and Rescue, said rescuers found about 14 bodies in the village of Makare on Sunday afternoon, and four more in South Makare.
“We are searching for two more victims, but the fog and drizzle have made the search difficult and police officers on the ground are overwhelmed,” Tana Toraja District Disaster Management Agency chief Sulaiman Maria said on Monday. ” he said.
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Just before midnight on Saturday, heavy rains washed mud from the surrounding hills into four houses in South Sulawesi’s Tana Toraja district, local police chief Gunardi Mundu said. He said a family gathering was being held at a residence when the landslide occurred.
Rescue teams search for survivors in a village hit by a landslide in Tana Toraja district, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, on April 14, 2024. Search and rescue teams have found multiple people dead in a landslide on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, and the search continues for several missing people. officials said on Monday. (National Search and Rescue Agency, via AP)
Dozens of soldiers, police and volunteers took part in the search in the remote mountainside villages of Makare and South Makare, Mundu said. Early Sunday morning, rescuers managed to extract two injured people, including an 8-year-old girl, and took them to a nearby hospital.
Downed communication lines, bad weather and unstable soil are hampering rescue efforts, Muhari said.
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Tana Toraja is home to many popular tourist attractions, including traditional houses and wooden statues of bodies buried in caves called tau tau.
Indonesia is made up of 17,000 islands, where seasonal heavy rains frequently cause landslides and floods, and millions of people live in mountainous areas and fertile floodplains.
