Sabah girl watches landslide kill family

Sabah girl watches landslide kill family

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): A landslide crashed through homes on a hillside in East Malaysia, killing 17 people and leaving one 10- year-old girl to watch her family die, a news report said on Monday.

Mahani Rudy awoke early on Sunday to a thunderous sound and screams as rocks and heavy rain bombarded her family's squatter home in the village of Kampung Gelam in Sabah state on Borneo island.

The 10-year-old frantically shook her mother awake and helped gather her brother and three sisters, aged three to 12. Heavy rain had pounded the hillside village of 20 wooden stilt homes for more than a week. On Sunday, in the pitch dark, four homes were buried under tons of mud and debris.

When Hamsiah Pandan, 29, the mother, opened the front door to flee, falling rocks and tree parts exploded toward her. A tree branch snagged the leg of Mahani and she watched as her siblings rushed to their mother's aid. All were buried alive.