© BNPBLandslide in Banaran Village, Pulung District, Ponorogo Regency, East Java, Indonesia, April 2017.
The landslide occurred on 09 April in the hamlet of Dlopo, near the village of Kepel in Nganjuk Regency, East Java. Five people are thought to be missing and authorities are carrying out search operations.
Indonesia's Disaster Management Agency, BNPB, reports that the landslide occurred on a hillside where there are no settlements. However, the landslide buried people working in paddy field at the edge of a river. The slide also caused a blockage of the river for a short time. Landslide debris in the river has since been removed.
Slopes in the area are known to be prone to landslides. In 2015 large cracks, some 20 cm wide and 200 metres long, were found in some of the hillsides. In January this year the cracks were found to have grown wider and locals were warned to avoid the area.
A small landslide occurred in the are in March 2017. Heavy rainfall on 08 April 2017 resulted in a larger landslide which has left 5 missing.
Indonesia's meteorological service Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi dan Geofisika (BMKG) reported heavy rain in parts of East and Central Java on 08 April, although exact figures for the remote location of Kepel are not available. BMKG says that 77 mm of rain fell in 24 hours in Tegal, Central Java, which lies some 300 km west of Kepel.
This is the second deadly landslide in East Java in 2 weeks. A massive landslide struck in Banaran Village, Pulung District, Ponorogo Regency, East Java, on 01 April, 2017, leaving a possible 25 missing.
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