Hanoi (VNA) – A landslide at an illegal gold mine in Gorontalo province on central Indonesia’s Sulawesi island had killed at least 23 people as of July 9 while 35 others are still missing.
The dead, pulled out of mud by rescuers, include three women and a 4-year-old boy.
With great efforts, rescuers on the same day also pulled 23 people alive from the mud, of them 18 injured.
A total of 270 rescuers have participated in the search and rescue activities over the past two days. Currently, they continue using heavy equipment to search for the missing, despite adverse weather and terrain.
More than 100 villagers were digging for grains of gold on July 6 in the remote and hilly village of Bone Bolango when tonnes of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried their makeshift camps, said Heriyanto, head of the Gorontalo provincial Search and Rescue Office.
According to the office, 66 villagers managed to escape from the landslide.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said torrential rains that had pounded the mountainous district since July 6 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 to safe places./.
