Heavy rain in Pekalongan is causing devastating landslides, blocking a main road and burying houses.
Rescuers in Indonesia continue to search for survivors after a landslide in the country's Central Java region killed at least 19 people.
Heavy rain in Pekalongan caused a landslide Tuesday on a main road connecting the city with a tourist spot, the Dieng plateau.
Pictures from the local media showed the affected road and houses buried and rice fields covered in mud, debris and rocks.
Rescuers had to walk about four kilometers (2.5 miles) to get to the site because the road was not accessible. Excavators were sent in to clear the mud as heavy rain and fog hampered rescue efforts.
“The joint search and rescue team was able to find and evacuate two bodies… Wednesday morning. The number of deaths recorded this afternoon is 19 people,” said Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
“The two bodies found this morning were part of the list of people reported missing in the horrific incident.
The search and rescue group Basarnas said on Wednesday that 13 people were also injured.
Heavy machinery has been sent in to clear road access for search teams and around 200 rescuers have been sent in to help the rescue effort, local official Mohammad Yulian Akbar said.
“The focus is to find the victims,” he said, adding that the local government had declared a state of emergency in the area for two weeks.
Images shared by the disaster agency showed rescuers carrying victims in body bags with bamboo stretchers under thick smoke from the site.
The agency warned residents that rain was expected in the next few days which could cause more landslides and floods.
Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, usually between November and April, but some disasters caused by bad weather have occurred outside of that season in recent years. .
In December, 10 people were killed in flash floods which hit hill towns on the country's main island of Java.
