TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Lieut. Gen. Suharyanto, reported that 35 residents are still missing in the landslide disaster on Serasan Island, Natuna Regency, Riau Islands Province. It is predicted that the missing people are still buried in landslide material with a depth of 4 meters.

“We will try our best to find the missing victims,” said Suharyanto in a written statement, Wednesday, March 8, 2023.

According to him, the search and rescue team focuses on evacuating the missing people in collaboration with Basarnas (National Search and Rescue Agency), BPBPD, Indonesian Military (TNI), National Police, and volunteers.

The team personnel will be added given the challenging vast area. Besides, BNPB, Basarnas, the police’s mobile brigade (Brimob) would also mobilize sniffer dogs to optimize the search, rescue, and evacuation process.

A landslide occurred on Serasan Island, Natuna on Monday, March 6, following a heavy rain shower, killing 21 people and displacing 1,216 people from their homes to date. The dead victims have been evacuated and identified.

The evacuees are taking shelter in a number of locations, including National Cross Border Posts (2019 people), the community health center or Puskesmas (215 people); the evacuation post of Pelimpak and Alfurqon Mosque (500 people), and SMA 1 Serasan (282 people).

The Natuna Regency Government has declared a disaster emergency response status due to the landslide for seven days from March 6 to 12.

M ROSSENO AJI

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