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Landslides hit western Indonesia!

JAKARTA: Rescuers have discovered eight bodies and have been searching for missing persons after landslides hit North Sumatra province of western Indonesia, head of provincial disaster management agency Riadil Lubis said today. 

Heavy downpours triggered soils in a hill slid down and hit four houses in Holado village of Toba Samosir district, Lubis told Xinhua via telephone from the province. “The soil buried and brought the houses downward into a ravine,” he said. A total of eight corpses, who had been buried by the soils, have been pulled by the rescuers, and search for two missing villagers is being undertaken now, involving soldiers, police, search and rescue personnel, and disaster management agency as well as volunteers.

“The focus of the search operation is to find the missing persons in the area of the ravine. Some small heavy equipment, which can reach and operate at the site, will be deployed into the spot,” said Lubis. A total of five people survived the natural disaster and sustained injuries, he said. Indonesia is frequently stricken by landslides and floods during heavy rains.

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.