Rescuers search for dozens buried in Indonesian landslide that killed at least 11 people

Jakarta, Indonesia: Rescue workers searched for dozens of missing people Tuesday, digging through tons of mud and the rubble left by a landslide that...

Jakarta, Indonesia: Rescue workers searched for dozens of missing people Tuesday, digging through tons of mud and the rubble left by a landslide that hit an unauthorized traditional gold mining area on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island and killed at least 11 people.

More than 100 villagers were digging for grains of gold Sunday in the remote and hilly village of Bone Bolango when tons of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried their makeshift camps, said Heriyanto, head of the provincial Search and Rescue Office.

According to data released Tuesday by his office, some 46 villagers managed to escape from landslide, about 23 people were pulled out alive by rescuers, including 18 injured, and 11 bodies were recovered, including three women and a 4-year-old boy. Officials revised an earlier death toll of 12 after finding that one of the dead was listed twice. Some 51 others are missing, it said.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said torrential rains that have pounded the mountainous district since Saturday triggered the landslide and broke an embankment, causing floods up to the roofs of houses in five villages in Bone Bolango, which is part of a mountainous district in Gorontalo province. Nearly 300 houses were affected and more than 1,000 people fled for safety.

Authorities deployed more than 200 rescuers, including police and military personnel, with heavy equipment to search for the dead and missing in a rescue operation that has been hampered by heavy rains, unstable soil, and the rugged, forested terrain, said Afifuddin Ilahude, a local rescue official.