18 killed in landslides in Indonesia

At least eighteen people have died in separate landslides triggered by heavy rain in two areas of Central Java, Indonesia. Many more people remain missing.

Authorities said on Monday, November 17, that search and rescue operations are still ongoing to find the missing.

The country’s disaster management agency said around a dozen houses in Cibeuing village in the southern coastal Cilacap Regency of Central Java were buried under landslide debris. People were trapped three to eight metres, ten to twenty-five feet, underground, making rescue operations extremely challenging.

M Abdullah, head of the local search and rescue office, said that at least sixteen people have died and seven are missing following the Cilacap landslide.

Footage published by a local media outlet on Monday showed excavators being used to remove soil in Cilacap, although increasing depth was hindering rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, a separate landslide in the Banjarnegara region of Central Java killed two people. In that incident, twenty-seven people remain missing, the disaster management agency said on Monday. Around thirty houses and farmlands were damaged.

The meteorological office said the monsoon season in the Southeast Asian country began in September and may continue until April, during which heavy rainfall and flooding risks remain high.