Rescue teams, including Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), the army, police, and volunteers, use high-pressure water to search for victims of a landslide triggered by heavy rain two days ago, which has so far claimed 19 lives, in Kasimpar Village, Central Java, on January 22, 2025. (Photo by DEVI RAHMAN / AFP)
Pekalongan, Indonesia: Hundreds of rescuers were searching through thick mud and debris to find survivors Wednesday after a rain-triggered landslide in Indonesia killed at least 19 people and left seven missing.
Intense rainfall in a mountainous area near Pekalongan city in Central Java province sparked the landslide on Monday, collapsing bridges and burying cars and houses.
The worst hit area was Kasimpar village according to a local official, with survivors recounting the horror of the landslide crashing into a coffee shop where people were sheltering from the rain.
"Suddenly there was a sound of an explosion from inside the cafe. So the land exploded. Suddenly it all destroyed, everything in the cafe was rolled up," Nasiri, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP while lying on a stretcher at a health centre.
"When I woke up, I was around 200 metres from the place, rolled up with rock, soil, water."
Rescuers found two bodies Wednesday morning, raising the toll to 19, said Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
Search and rescue agency Basarnas said in a statement that 13 people were also injured.
Heavy machinery was deployed to clear road access for search teams and around 200 rescue personnel have been sent to help the rescue effort, local official Mohammad Yulian Akbar said.
"The focus is to search for the victims," he said, adding that the local government had declared an emergency in the district for two weeks.
