LANDSLIDE KILLS 72 AT W JAVA TEA PLANTATION

Bandung, W Java, Feb 23 (ANTARA) - A landslide that hit the Dewata tea plantation area in Tenjolaya village, Pasirjambu subdistrict, Bandung district , on Tuesday killed at least 72 people.

Head of Bandung district's disaster management and refugee coordinating agency, Sofyan Nataprawira, said Tuesday evening five of the victims had been evacuated but 67 others were still buried under the soil of the landslide.

The buried victims consisted of 47 people in the plantation area, 10 in the plantation' offices, and 15 in the plantation's factory.

Search and rescue workers had so far found five victims but the others were still being searched for, he said.

Nataprawira said rescuers could not easily reach the disaster location because the landslide occurred between the plantation and forest areas so it was not easy to deploy caterpillars.

The landslide that had buried almost all parts of the tea plantation area, including the offices, occurred at about 08.00 am local time.

"We have difficulty contacting the authories due to the absence of cellular phone signals," he said.

Bandung district and other parts of West Java province have continuously been showered by heavy rains over the past two months.

Landslides had not only occurred in Bandung district but also in Bogor and Garut.

The muddy flood and landslide victims in six hamlets of the West Java regency of Garut, for instance, had even asked the local government to immediately relocate them to safer areas.

As a result of the recent natural disaster, at least 344 families with a total of 2,510 people left their houses, which had been damaged or destroyed by muddy floods and landslides.

The ongoing heavy rains had also caused the overflow of main rivers and floods in various areas.

The torrential rains in Bandung city had killed two people last week. They were identified as Asep Jaja and Sugiri DH Mahari.