Officials said the death toll from a landslide at a Malaysian campsite had risen to 21, including five children. A search is on for a dozen missing people.
People inspect the damage caused after a landslide in Batang Kali, Selangor on December 16, 2022. (AFP photo)
by Agence France-PresseThe death toll from a landslide at a Malaysian campsite has risen to 21, including five children.
Even after the accident, a dozen people are missing A pre-dawn landslide hit a campsite at an organic farm Friday near the town of Batang Kali outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Officials said more than 90 people, most of them asleep, were at a campsite near the Mountain Casino Resort when the landslide occurred.
Officials said 61 people were safe or rescued.
Norazam Khamis, director of the Selangor State Fire and Rescue Department, told reporters on Friday that two of the victims were “believed to be a mother and her child in a hugging position buried under the earth”.
Officials said the farm did not have a license to operate the campsite and that its operators would be punished if they were found breaking the law.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visited the area late Friday and said financial aid would be given to the families of those killed or injured in the disaster.
Selangor state chief minister Amiruddin Shairi tweeted that all picnic and camping sites in the state would be closed for a week.
Landslides are common in Malaysia after heavy rains, which are regular towards the end of the year, and can be followed by bad weather.
However, heavy rain was not recorded in the area on the night of the disaster.
The government has imposed strict rules on hill development.
In March, four people were killed in a landslide triggered by heavy rains in a Kuala Lumpur suburb that buried their homes.
In one of the deadliest such incidents, a massive landslide triggered by heavy rains in 1993 caused a 12-storey residential building to collapse outside the capital, killing 48 people.