Rescuers combed the muddy ground of a Malaysian campsite on Saturday in search of survivors and bodies after a landslide that occurred the day before and which killed 21 people, including five children, according to a latest report.
A dozen people are still missing since the disaster that occurred before dawn on Friday in the campsite of an organic farm near the town of Batang Kali, on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur. Officials said more than 90 people, most of them asleep, were at the location near a hill station with a casino.
61 people have so far been found safe and sound, authorities said.
Two of the victims are “a mother and her child, entwined and buried under the ground,” Norazam Khamis, a fire and rescue official in the state of Selangor (center), which includes the capital Kuala Lumpur, told reporters on Friday.
The farm operated the campsite without a permit and risks a sanction if their responsibility in this drama is recognized by the courts.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visited the scene on Friday evening and announced that financial assistance would be given to families whose loved ones were killed or injured in the landslide.
As a result of the tragedy, all camping and picnic spots in the state will close for a week, tweeted Amirudin Shari, Chief Minister of Selangor State.
Landslides are frequent in Malaysia, particularly because of the recurrent heavy rains at the end of the year.
However, no episode of heavy rainfall was recorded during the night of the disaster in Batang Kali.
In 1993, a massive mudslide triggered by heavy rain caused a 12-storey residential building near the capital to collapse, killing 48 people in one of Malaysia’s worst natural disasters.