SAR Team Finds 5 Deaths Due To Landslides On Mount Kuda

Officers evacuated the bodies of the victims who had been buried by landslide material on Mount Kuda Cirebon, West Java. (Photo: ANTARA)

A landslide occurred in the Gunung Kuda mining area, Cirebon Regency, West Java, causing five people to be killed and more than 10 other victims still buried in material.

SAR Team Coordinator Cirebon Syarief said the landslide reportedly occurred at around 11.30 WIB in the excavation C mining area, with materials in the form of stones and soil.

In addition to workers, he said, landslide materials also stockpiled a number of heavy equipment and project vehicles.

The joint SAR team was immediately deployed upon receiving the incident report. "The search is still ongoing," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, May 30.

He said the five dead had now been evacuated to a nearby hospital. But until now, their identity is still in the verification process.

Syarief said several other workers were injured as a result of the incident and were undergoing medical treatment at the hospital.

So far, his party has not been able to confirm the number of victims who died or were injured as a whole because the evacuation process was still ongoing until 14.51 WIB.

Even so, his party estimates that there are still more than 10 people trapped under the pile of landslides.

It is estimated that there are three excavators and a number of trucks that are also buried. We focus on searching for the last points of visible heavy equipment," said Syarief.

He said the search effort was hampered by the type of avalanche material which was dominated by large stones. This makes the search unable to be done manually.

Currently, he continued, four units of heavy equipment have been deployed to the location to assist the evacuation process.

Syarief memastikan penambahan alat berat, kemungkinan dilakukan jika kondisi di lapangan memungkinkan.

"Residents around the location are asked to stay away because the potential for further landslides is still quite high," he said.

For your information, the location of the landslide is a C excavation area on Mount Kuda Cirebon which is actively operating, but the licensing status cannot be ascertained.

This incident is the second time on Mount Kuda. Previously in 2014, similar landslides also occurred in locations not far from the current landslide point.