Manado: Death toll from a landslide in a smallholder mining site in Bakan Village, Bolaang Mongondow regency, North Sulawesi Province has risen to 27 as of Wednesday morning.
The joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team found another body on Wednesday at 8:18 a.m. local time and sent it to Kotamobagu Hospital for identification.
Tens of gold miners were buried inside an illegal gold mining site at Bakan, Bolaang Mongondow, North Sulawesi at 9 p.m local time on February 27. Eighteen miners survived the disaster.
"Tens of gold miners are buried by a landslide in an illegal gold mining site on February 27, 2019, at 9 p.m. local time at Bakan Village, Lolayan, Bolaang Mongondow," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), noted on his Twitter account, last week.
Deputy for Operation, Search, and Help of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Nugroho Budi Wiryanto earlier remarked that the SAR team will continue to evacuate those still trapped in the mining site.
"We will continue to evacuate them using heavy duty equipment," he noted. Wiryanto said he was unaware of the exact number of people still trapped in the mining site.
Indonesia is blessed with fertile soil and various natural resources, but concurrently, the country is prone to natural disasters, as it is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, where numerous volcanoes and earthquakes occur.
According to the official government data, during the period from January to mid-December last year, a total of 2,572 natural disasters had hit the country, leaving at least 4,821 people dead or missing, according to the government data.
Of the total, 96.9 percent of the natural disasters were hydrometeorological in nature, such as floods, landslides, and whirlwind, while 3.1 percent of them were geological disasters, such as earthquakes. (Antara)
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