70 dead in Indonesian landslide
2006-01-07 08:46
Jakarta - Indonesian authorities have revised the estimated death toll from the landslide that levelled the Sijeruk village in central Java from 200 to 70 after scores of people initially reported missing were accounted for.
The landslide occurred when a torrent of mud slammed into the hillside village of Sijeruk before dawn on Wednesday after days of heavy rains.
So far, rescuers have unearthed 57 bodies.
Commissioner Budi Wartoyo, head of Indonesian police operations in the Banjarnegara district, said the search for the remaining victims was expected to wrap up on Saturday.
According to Wartoyo, 536 of the area's 655 residents had escaped the landslide.
Hundreds of rescuers have used backhoes and hand tools to dig into the deep wall of mud. They do not expect to find survivors.
The landslide in Sijeruk, 370 kilometres east of the capital Jakarta, is the second disaster on Java island in the past week.
Flash floods killed at least 77 people and swept away hundreds of houses in several villages in neighbouring East Java province on New Year's Eve.
On Friday, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged to investigate claims that deforestation was to blame for the flooding and landslides.
Environmentalists say massive logging and land conversion for farming on Java, one of the world's most densely populated islands, are triggering the natural disasters.