Malaysia: Eight Keningau landslide victims still not found

Bernama New Strait Times 2 Apr 17;

KINABATANGAN: Eight people missing in a landslide in Kampung Sungai Labau, Sook, Keningau at noon yesterday, have yet to been found.

The search and rescue (SAR) operation today was adjourned at 6pm.

Kinabatangan District police chief Supt A.Sahak Rahmat said the operation would continue tomorrow at 7.30am involving the police, Civil Defense Force and Fire and Rescue Team.

Eight people comprising four males and four females were missing in the landslide which occurred at 12.19 pm, crashing onto three of the eight homes of the workers of the Seng Fo oil palm plantation.

According to initial reports, the eight victims were identified as Asma,36, Ana,16, Titiwana,12, Alisan,8, (all female), Sabril,10, Alan,11, Johati,11, and Azril,6 (all male)

The three victims who survived the incident were Jalikah Malingkul,50 (female), Abdul,50 (male) and Joshnam Bin Abdul,18, (male).

Sahak said the SAR team had to travel three hours by boat via Sungai Kuamut from Kampung, Tongod to get to the scene of the incident.

The SAR team from Keningau was unable to reach the incident area as the road via Nabawan was impassable as the bridge connecting the road to the location had been damaged. -- Bernama


Seven missing after landslip
STEPHANIE LEE The Star 3 Apr 16;

KOTA KINABALU: Seven people, including five children, from a family are missing after a landslip swept away their wooden house into a river.

The five are two 13-year-old boys and three eight-year-olds whose gender are not yet known.

The rest are two 17-year-old girls.

During the incident on Saturday, they were with four others at a wor­ker’s quarters in an oil palm estate when the landslip struck and carried away their home into the river.

Two adults and two other children – a boy and a girl – were rescued by villagers who saw them clinging to debris in the river.

The landslip in Kampung Alitang, Tongod, some 200km from here, had struck along the Crocker Range in Central Sabah after heavy rains in the area since March 30.

Yesterday, rescuers from central Tongod and the interior Sook district, off Keningau, were still struggling through difficult terrain to reach the scene of the tragedy.

Sabah Public Defence Department director Kol Mulliadi Al-Hamdi Ladin said it had received a distress call from the estate owner at about 12.20pm on Saturday and a team was mobilised to the area.

“However, we are still not able to enter or reach the place as the bridge linking the estate has been damaged,” he said.

He further added that those involved were believed to be Filipino workers and their fa­milies.

“Updates will be given when we have them,” said Kol Mulliadi.

Rescuers from Keningau first res­ponded to the case as the incident had taken place close to the district border although it is in Tongod.