Seven die in landslide, 48 declared missing

PADANG, West Sumatra (JP): Search and rescue crews were on a race against time on Thursday after a landslide engulfed a residential area at the foot of Lantiak hill in Seberang Palinggam subdistrict, South Padang, killing seven people and leaving 48 missing under thick mud.

"I saw my neighbor who was drying clothes on a clothesline in front of the house suddenly disappear, run over by a speeding wall of mud," said Mansyur, one of the survivors.

He was crossing the Batang Arau River when he saw the top of the hill collapse and bury 16 houses beneath thousands of cubic meters of earth and mud.

As of Thursday evening rescuers had recovered the bodies of seven people, most of them children.

The dead were identified as Eni Ramli, 35, Puput, 5, Nando, 5, Selvi, 4, Erik, 3, 15-month-old Rifwan and an old man whose identity remains unknown.

Hundreds of rescue workers, consisting of a team from the West Sumatra Mobile Police Brigade, Padang Military Battalion 133 and student volunteers, vowed to keep up the rescue effort.

There was no indication that disaster was about to strike earlier Thursday morning.

Witnesses said the weather was fine when they suddenly heard a thundering noise, followed by a wall of mud plunging from the top of Lantiak hill at around 7:45 a.m.

Residents living in the foothills were known to be from the island of Nias.

Most of the missing were women and children, with local men having left for work when the landslide occurred.

"The houses are deeply buried in mud. Even the rooftops of the buildings are gone. We're afraid that the victims will not survive," Ahmad Nasir, another survivor, said.

Padang Mayor Zuiyen Rais M.S. has called on officials and local agencies to assist in the search operations by deploying excavation equipment to dislodge the thick mud.

Hope for survivors appeared slim.

Two mothers looked on as rescue workers methodically dug through the earth at a painstakingly slow pace.

A woman, Butet, continued to hold out hope for her husband and two children, who are among those believed to be buried in the mud.

Mastur said her two children were missing along with seven cousins who lived nearby.

The mothers went out for a walk together in the woods only minutes before the landslide occurred.

The worst may not be over, with officials warning of further landslides in the area in the current rainy season.

"Once the rain, occurs the mud will run down the hill fast and cause bigger landslides which could wipe out the rest of the houses below," Oyon Anwar, a local community leader, warned. (28/edt)