At least 25 killed, dozens missing after landslide hits Indonesia’s Java island

Dozens of people remain missing following a landslide on Indonesia’s Java island that has killed at least 25 people, as rescue teams continue searching through unstable terrain amid lingering weather risks, Sky News reports.

The landslide struck the West Bandung district of West Java province after days of torrential rain, burying homes under tons of mud, rocks, and uprooted trees. Authorities are searching for 72 people believed to be trapped beneath the debris.

Improved weather conditions on January 15 allowed a 250-member search and rescue team to recover 14 additional bodies, bringing the death toll to 25, according to Ade Dian Permana of the provincial search and rescue office.

More than 30 homes in Pasir Langu village were buried, forcing around 230 residents to evacuate to temporary government shelters. Video footage released by Basarnas, Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, showed rescuers using farm tools and their bare hands to pull bodies from the mud, as heavy machinery could not be deployed due to the ground’s instability.

Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii said the terrain continued to complicate operations. “We are at the mercy of the weather, and the slide is still mud... flowing and unstable,” he said. “With the area this wide, we’ll use every asset we have... drones, K-9 teams and ground units, but safety comes first.”

Permana said mounds of mud were as high as 5 metres (16 feet), adding that “some homes are buried up to the roof level.” He noted that “if the slope does not stabilise, crews are prepared to continue manually.”

Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who visited the affected area on January 25, said measures would be taken to prevent similar disasters and urged local authorities to “address the issue of land conversion in disaster-prone areas.”

Rescue officials said operations would continue non-stop as long as conditions allow, but warned that further rainfall could destabilise the slope even more.

Environmental activists have blamed the disaster on years of environmental degradation caused by land conversion for development. Wahyudin Iwang of the environmental group Walhi West Java said the landslide reflected long-standing neglect of planning regulations in the North Bandung Area (KBU), a protected conservation zone spanning about 38,543 hectares. “This landslide is the accumulation of activities that were not in line with spatial planning and environmental functions,” he said.

The disaster comes less than two months after floods and landslides across South and Southeast Asia killed more than 1,300 people. Indonesia, an archipelago of over 17,000 islands, is particularly prone to flooding and landslides during the rainy season, which typically lasts from October to April.

By Vafa Guliyeva