Police say landslide at Indonesian tea plantation kills at least 15 workers, scores buried

Police: 15 dead, 57 buried by Indonesian landslide

CIWIDEY, Indonesia — Rescuers used heavy digging equipment Wednesday to clear a muddy landslide that killed at least 15 people and left 57 buried on Indonesia’s main island of Java, an official said.

Days of heavy rain prompted the landslide Tuesday afternoon at a mountainous tea plantation near the village of Tenjoljaya in Ciwidey district of West Java province, destroying scores of homes.

Scores of soldiers and police officers plus two excavators bolstered search efforts Wednesday and 15 bodies had been recovered from a vast pile of clay by the afternoon, National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said.

He said another 15 people had been injured, two of whom had been admitted to hospital.

The winding mountain roads made boggy by the days of heavy rain were hampering efforts to get equipment and rescuers to the scene, he said, adding that more landslides were possible.

Some 600 villagers from the region have been evacuated to temporary shelters in safer locations, Kardono said. Most of these were from unaffected nearby villages that were in landslide-prone areas.

Kardono said 25 people were believed to have died in the plantation’s factory and office. It was not immediately clear where the six bodies were found.