JAKARTA, Indonesia — A rain-triggered landslide today at a tea plantation on Indonesia’s main island of Java buried scores of workers, officials said. At least five people were confirmed dead.
No heavy earth-moving equipment was available in the area, so villagers were digging through tons of dislodged mud with farm tools and their bare hands to search for survivors, police chief Lt. Col. Imron Yunus said.
The landslide occurred at a tea plantation near the mountainous village of Tenjoljaya in the Ciwidey district after days of heavy rain, he said.
Yunus said more than 60 people remained under the mud and debris, which covered at least 50 houses near the Perkebunan Teh Dewata tea plantation.
Yunus said five bodies had been pulled from the mud.
Disaster management center coordinator Sofyan Nataprawira said 72 people were likely dead with 67 unaccounted for, the Antara news agency reported.
Nataprawira was quoted as saying 25 people were believed to have died in the plantation’s factory and office. It was not immediately clear where the five bodies were found.
An official at the nearest public hospital at the town of Soreang said no victims had been brought there for treatment, Antara reported.
The Red Cross said about 500 villagers who lost their homes have been evacuated to temporary shelters in neighboring villages.
The Red Cross will send a helicopter and excavating equipment to the area on Wednesday, Indonesian Red Cross Secretary General Budi Atmaji Adiputro said.
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