The landslide occurred during New Year's Eve celebrations less than two weeks after a deadly volcano and tsunami disaster.
Soldiers, police and residents fanned out across a damaged Indonesian village on Tuesday, searching in the mud for possible victims of a landslide caused by torrential rain that killed at least nine people and left 34 others missing.
Tons of mud that rolled from the surrounding hills late Monday buried 30 houses in Sirnaresmi village of West Java's Sukabumi district. Sixty people who were displaced have fled to a temporary shelter, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman.
He said more than 500 rescuers have retrieved eight bodies from mounds of mud and pulled out four injured people, including an infant who died in the hospital. They are still searching for 34 villagers said to still be missing.
Authorities struggled to get tractors and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads as heavy rain was hampering search efforts, Nugroho said. Television footage showed hundreds of police, soldiers and residents digging through debris with their hands, shovels and hoes.
"Lack of equipment, bad weather and blackout hampered our rescue efforts for those who are still missing and feared dead," said Nugroho.
Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains near rivers.
Rescuers are working against time to locate survivors of a landslide in West Java.
The landslide occurred during New Year's Eve celebrations less than two weeks after a deadly volcano and tsunami disaster.
On December 22, the Anak Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait erupted and partially collapsed into the sea, causing a tsunami that killed 437 people on Java and Sumatra islands. At least 16 people still missing and more than 33,700 residents were displaced.
The death toll from a landslide triggered by heavy rain in Indonesia's West Java province earlier has risen to at least 18, while 15 others remain missing, disaster agency official said on Friday.
The natural disaster devastated Sinaresmi village of Sukabumi district on Monday leaving three villagers seriously injured, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
As many as 29 houses were buried by soils sliding from a hill when heavy downpours hit the village. A total of 63 villagers survived the landslides and were taking shelters in safer places, said Sutopo.
More than 1,000 soldiers, police personnel, the personnel from search and rescue office, disaster management agency and volunteers were scrambling to find the missing villagers, said Sutopo.
The major obstacle of the search operation is the rain. When the weather is clear, the operation can be undertaken until night but the efforts would be terminated earlier when it is raining, he told Xinhua in a text message.
Rescuers who have been pulling bodies from mountains of mud call off the search with one person still unaccounted for
At least 32 people were killed by a landslide in Indonesia on New Year's Eve, authorities said Monday, January 7, as they ended a week-long search for missing victims.
Rescuers who have been pulling bodies from mountains of mud called off the search with one person still unaccounted for after heavy rains triggered the deadly slides in West Java province.
Several others were injured in the December 31 disaster.
"The search has wrapped up," said West Java police chief Agung Budi Maryoto.
"Just one victim has not yet been found and the family has accepted it."
Landslides are common in Indonesia, a vast tropical archipelago prone to natural disasters and torrential downpours.
More than 20 people died in October when flash floods and landslides hit several provinces on Sumatra island, western Indonesia.
In June 2016, nearly 50 people died when floods and landslides struck Central Java province.
wonder what the people in Indonesia did to piss off the Gods seems they are having a hell of a time trying to survive if it's not an earthquake or tsunami it's a volcano or a storm Glad I don't live there
Comment: Update: Xinhua on January 4th reports: Update: Rappler on January 7 reports: Elsewhere in south-east Asia recently: Death toll in Philippines floods, landslides rises to at least 122