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Landslide claims 10 lives in Indonesia’s Java

Sunday, 29 March 2015 3:21 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 29 March 2015 3:20 PM ]

Indonesian members of a search and rescue team work on the site at the Jemblung village in Banjarnegara, Central Java on December 15, 2014. ©AFP

Relentless downpour has let a cliff loose on a village in the main Indonesian island of Java, killing as many as 10 people.

The landslide took place in the village of Tegal Panjang in the Sukabumi district in west Java late Saturday.

“Ten bodies were found... and we are still looking for two others missing,” National Disaster Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Sunday.

Eleven houses were also buried under the debris.

Torrential rain on Saturday also caused a dam in the Purworejo district of Central Java Province to burst, flooding four villages in the district and killing one villager.

Torrential downpour triggered a landslide hitting Jemblung Village in central Java last December. At least 26 people were confirmed dead in the landslide.

In recent years, floods and landslides have repeatedly battered Indonesia, which is a chain of 17,000 islands, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

During Indonesia’s annual rainy season, which peaks between December and February, the country is prone to flooding, exacerbated by clogged rivers and sewers.

The National Disaster Agency estimates that around half the country’s 250 million population lives in areas prone to landslides.

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