Jakarta: A flash flood and landslide in West Bandung district, West Java province, on Sunday (March 24, 2024) left at least nine people missing, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported.
The missing people are all residents of Gintung hamlet in Cibenda village in Cipongkor sub-district, the agency’s spokesperson, Abdul Muhari, said in a press statement received on Monday.
The victims may have been carried away by floodwaters and landslide materials that hit their houses amid heavy rainfall in Gintung hamlet on Sunday, he added.
Muhari said that a joint team of search and rescue workers from several government agencies arrived at the disaster-hit area on Monday and started intensifying search efforts.
Observing the situation on the ground, the SAR workers feared that the number of buried victims could increase, he said.
To accelerate search efforts, the rescuers launched a drone equipped with a device for detecting buried victims, he said, adding that the drone belongs to the SAR Agency-Bandung Office.
