Batang Kali landslide: Fire Dept finds four new leads

BATANG KALI, Dec 18 (Bernama) -- The Selangor Fire and Rescue Department found four new leads today on the possibility of finding bodies under the rubble of the landslide that occurred at a campsite along the Batang Kali-Genting Highlands route here.

Selangor Fire and Rescue Department director Datuk Norazam Khamis said the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) was very helpful in narrowing down the search area in all sectors.

"The GPR has detected objects suspected to be human bodies underground, and has so far helped identify 14 points,” he said, adding that not all of them resulted in the discovery of human remains.

Meanwhile, Hulu Selangor District Police chief Supt Suffian Abdullah said the registration plate numbers of the seven vehicles involved in the landslide here last Friday were recorded to identify their owners.

He said the police would examine all the licence plates to see if they were related to the nine victims who were still missing.

Norazam said that although no soil movement was detected at the SAR location so far this afternoon, the search team was urged to remain alert due to the rainy weather.

"The safety of the team is a priority at this time. In this situation, we instruct the members to reduce their movements and only stay within the sectored locations and not make any aggressive movements.

"Currently, sector A is the riskiest spot because it is in a sloping area," he said.

Meanwhile, when asked about the condition of the bodies discovered, Norazam said most of them were found intact.

He said although the soil movement posed some risk to the SAR team, the situation also provided an advantage in terms of the search.

"Most of the bodies were found at a depth of one to two meters, and due to the soil movement, the victims were pushed forward, so it made it easier for the team to find the victims with the help of an excavator.

He said the operation was stopped for about an hour at 4.30 pm due to rain before resuming at 5.30 pm, but had to be halted again 8.15 pm due to heavy rain.

A Bernama survey at the scene of the incident as of 9 pm found that it was raining heavily, while telecommunications access was also affected.

-- BERNAMA