PONOROGO, Indonesia – More than two dozen people were reported missing on Saturday after a rain-triggered landslide struck a village on Indonesia’s main island of Java.
The landslide hit up to 30 houses and farmers harvesting ginger on a hillside in Banaran village in East Java province’s Ponorogo district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency.
The local mitigation agency said 27 people were buried, while a local army chief put the number of missing at 38, based on reports from villagers.
Disaster agency rescuers, soldiers, police officers and volunteers were searching for the missing, Nugroho said.
The landslide overturned vehicles, shattered and buried buildings, and left a massive scar on a hillside where lush vegetation had been torn away.
Seasonal rains cause frequent floods in Indonesia. Many of the country’s 256 million people live in mountainous areas or fertile, flood-prone plains near rivers.
