Rescue workers recover 13 bodies from Indonesian landslide

Jan 10, 2007, 11:55 GMT

Jakarta - Rescue workers on Wednesday recovered the bodies of the final four victims of a landslide that killed 13 people in Indonesia's West Sumatra province, officials and news reports said.

The disaster occurred Monday after several days of heavy rains, burying the victims alive and destroying four houses and a small mosque in Padang Pariaman regency, about 900 kilometres west of Jakarta.

Muslim Kasim, the regency's chief, said rescue workers found the four missing bodies under tons of mud Wednesday morning after search and rescue personnel and local residents resumed work at daybreak.

Nine bodies had been recovered Tuesday.

'Now all of the 13 people buried in the landslide had been accounted for,' Kasim told the Jakarta-based Elshinta radio station.

Rains caused a hillside in Jorong Sungai Sariak village to collapse, unleashing tons of soil and mud, Kasim said.

Padang Pariaman, which lies in a mountain range along the western coast of Sumatra Island, has a long history of landslides and flooding during the rainy season.

Landslides and flash floods in Aceh province and nearby North Sumatra province last month killed more than 100 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.