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Rain sets off Indonesia landslide, killing 5 with 38 missing

Rain sets off Indonesia landslide, killing 5 with 38 missing

By Associated Press

Rescue workers search for victims near a collapsed house following landslides at Cisolok district in Sukabumi, West Java province, Indonesia, January 1, 2019. Photo: Antara Foto/M Agung Rajasa/via Reuters

JAKARTA: Authorities say a landslide triggered by torrential rain has killed at least five people and left 38 others missing on Indonesia's main island of Java. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said soldiers, police and volunteers fanned out Tuesday across a damaged village of Sirnaresmi in West Java's Sukabumi district to search the dislodged earth for possible victims. The mud that rolled from the surrounding hills late Monday buried 30 houses, leaving 61 people displaced. Nugroho said the rescuers have retrieved five bodies and pulled three injured people from the mud and rushed them to a hospital. Seasonal rains in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains near rivers.