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Indonesian rescuers fear nearly 30 people buried in Java landslide

by Reuters
Sunday, 2 April 2017 04:16 GMT

People look at a car partially buried under a collapsed house after a landslide triggered by heavy rain at Banaran village in Ponorogo, Indonesia East Java province, April 1, 2017 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Siswowidodo/ via REUTERS

Image Caption and Rights Information

Rescue efforts hampered by people flocking to the area to see the landslide and causing traffic jams.

(Recasts with body found, new toll for buried and injured)

JAKARTA, April 2 (Reuters) - Indonesian rescuers, joined by police and soldiers, found one body and continued to look for 28 other people feared to be buried after a landslide triggered by heavy rain on Indonesia's Java island, a spokesman for the national disaster agency said.

The mud and debris from Saturday's landslide in a village in the Ponorogo area of East Java had engulfed more than 20 houses after sliding 800 metres (875 yards) down a hillside, National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

Some of the victims were believed to include a group harvesting a crop of ginger in fields around the village, he said.

Seventeen people had been injured and were being treated at a community health centre.

Rescue efforts were hampered by people flocking to the area to see the landslide and causing traffic jams, he said earlier.

The local disaster mitigation agency had warned of the risk of a landslide due to recent rain, and some people had only returned to the village on Saturday after staying the night in a shelter, said the official.

(Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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