One Worker Buried By Mosque Ruins In Mamuju Found Dead

MAMUJU - One worker who was previously reported buried under the rubble of the Suada Mamuju Mosque in West Sulawesi Province, which was being renovated due to an earthquake, was found dead.

"Tonight, at around 23.30 WITA, one of the workers was found dead," said Head of the Mamuju Search and Rescue Office (Basarnas) Muhammad Arif Anwar, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, December 22 night.

The body of the worker named Hendri was immediately evacuated to the Mamuju Hospital.

Meanwhile, another worker named Daeng Tobo arrived on Wednesday night at around 23. 30 WITA has not been found.

"The search process by the joint SAR team has been temporarily suspended and will resume tomorrow (Thursday)," said Arif Anwar.

"However, the process of removing material by the company is still continuing. Until now, the joint SAR team is still on standby at the location," he added.

Arif said the search for workers buried under the Suada Mamuju Mosque was hampered by the large volume of building materials at the scene, which required heavy equipment.

"All elements of the SAR have been working optimally to immediately find and evacuate victims. We hope that one other worker can be found soon," he said.

The information gathered stated that the two construction workers of the Suada Mamuju Mosque, which was damaged by the 6.2 magnitude earthquake on January 15, 2021, were crushed by building materials that were about to be torn down.

An officer from the Mamuju BPBD said that at the time of the incident, workers were installing rope slings to knock down the mosque building which was to be rebuilt.

In that incident, three people managed to survive, two of them suffered injuries while two other workers, namely Hendri and Daeng Tobo were trapped in the rubble of the mosque building.

Hendri finally managed to die while a worker named Daeng Tobo is still being searched.