News @ AsiaOne

Eleven dead in Indonesian Papua landslide: officials

Hill behind hospital staff housing complex gave way; 5 saved from rubble. -AFP

Tue, Jan 15, 2008
AFP

JAKARTA - ELEVEN people have been found dead following a landslide at a hospital staff housing complex in eastern Indonesia on Tuesday, bringing to an end the search for bodies, police and officials said.

'We have recovered all eleven bodies at about 5pm (4pm Singapore time),' regional police chief Max Donald Aer told AFP, adding that a six-month-old baby was among the dead.

Five people, including the baby's mother, were saved and were being treated at a hospital intensive care following the slide in the easternmost province of Papua, he said.

A hill behind the housing complex gave way in the early hours of Tuesday after heavy rains hit the provincial capital of Jayapura, although the hospital, which was 50 metres away, was not damaged, he said.

The state-run Antara news agency reported that heavy rains, which began on Monday evening, had caused up to two metres of flooding in some areas of the hilly city, causing massive traffic congestion.

Landslides and flooding are common in Indonesia during the rainy season, which hits a peak from December to February.

Earlier this month more than 110 people were killed on Indonesia's main island of Java following a series of landslides and flooding. -- AFP

 
 
 
Copyright ©2007 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn. No. 198402868E. All rights reserved.
Privacy Statement Conditions of Access Advertise