Indonesia on Saturday revised the estimated death toll from a landslide that levelled a village in Central Java from 200 down to about 70, after scores of people initially reported missing were accounted for.
Officials had earlier said up to 200 people had been buried when a torrent of mud slammed into the hillside village of Sijeruk before dawn on Wednesday, following days of heavy rains.
Rescuers have so far unearthed 57 bodies and the search for the remaining victims believed buried was expected to wrap up on Saturday, said Commissioner Budi Wartoyo, head of police operations in Banjarnegara district.
The officer said that 536 of the area’s 655 residents had escaped the landslide, 13 people were in hospital for treatment of injuries and 33 others were not home when the incident took place.
”We expected to exhume about 20 victims today and complete the search,” he said.
Some of the hundreds of rescuers, who have used backhoes and hand tools to dig into the deep wall of mud, said on Friday they were unlikely to find any survivors among those still missing.
The landslide in Sijeruk, 370km east of the capital, Jakarta, is the second disaster on Java island in the past week.
Flash floods killed at least 77 people and swept away hundreds of houses in several villages in neighbouring East Java province on New Year’s Eve.
Police said the search for flood victims continued on Saturday, with one helicopter used to access isolated zones in Jember district.
”We believe there are still bodies buried under the mud,” said Commissioner Teduh Tedjo.
Both disasters followed days of monsoon rains.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday pledged to investigate claims that deforestation is to blame for the flooding and landslides.
Environmentalists pointed the finger at massive logging and land conversion for farming on Java, one of the world’s most densely populated islands, and called on the government to take action.
Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban has denied that the landslide in Sijeruk was caused by logging and blamed unstable earth in the area.
Flooding and landslides are not unusual during Indonesia’s rainy season.
In 2003, more than 200 people died when flash floods tore through Bahorok, a popular riverside resort in North Sumatra province. Some officials denied deforestation was the cause of that tragedy. — AFP
