Rescue operations are continuing in Indonesia following a catastrophic landslide on Java island that has claimed at least 11 lives, with dozens more feared missing under tonnes of debris. The disaster, triggered by days of torrential rainfall, struck the West Bandung district of West Java province on Saturday, burying homes and forcing evacuations.
Search Efforts Hampered by Unstable Terrain
The search for 79 missing individuals believed to be trapped under mud, rocks, and uprooted trees is being conducted under challenging conditions. Mohammad Syafii, chief of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency Basarnas, stated that the unstable, muddy terrain and ongoing bad weather are severely complicating recovery efforts. "We are at the mercy of the weather, and the slide is still mud... flowing and unstable," he explained, emphasising that safety remains the priority for rescue teams.
Manual Recovery and Evacuation Measures
With heavy machinery largely unusable due to the soft ground, rescuers have been relying on manual methods, using farm tools and their bare hands to recover victims. Video footage released by Basarnas showed workers carefully extracting a body before placing it in an orange bag for burial. Ade Dian Permana from the provincial search and rescue office reported that two more bodies were recovered on Sunday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 11. He estimated mud mounds reaching up to 5 metres (16 feet) high, with some homes buried to roof level.
More than 30 homes in Pasir Langu village were completely engulfed by the landslide. Approximately 230 residents from the surrounding area have been evacuated to temporary government shelters as a precautionary measure. Permana noted that if the slope fails to stabilise, crews are prepared to continue working manually to locate survivors and recover the deceased.
Official Response and Broader Context
Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka visited the affected site on Sunday, pledging to implement measures to prevent similar disasters in the future. He urged local authorities to address land conversion issues in areas prone to such natural calamities. This tragic event occurs less than two months after floods and landslides in parts of South and Southeast Asia, including Indonesia's Sumatra island, killed over 1,300 people according to official reports.
Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, experiences frequent flooding and landslides during its rainy season from October to April. In January 2025, torrential rains in Central Java province resulted in floods and landslides that claimed more than 20 lives, highlighting the region's ongoing vulnerability to extreme weather events.
