16 House Destroyed by Lanslide in C Java

Purbalingga, C Java (Antara) - A landslide triggered by heavy rains destroyed 16 houses in Sirau village in Central Java's Purbalingga district on Saturday night. The landslide which broke out at around 08.00 p.m. on Saturday caused serious damage to four houses and moderate damage to 12 others, Head of the Purbalingga District Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Priyo Satmoko said on Sunday. The disaster also destroyed four bridges and 35 hectares of paddy field and caused six goats, one cow to disappear, he said. The landslide also covered 10 sections of the road linking Sirau to Kramat villages. However, no injuries or fatalities were reported in the landslide. He said the agency is still counting the material losses caused by the landslide. "We will soon distribute relief aid among landslide victims," he said. In the past few weeks, floods and landslides have hit parts of Indonesia, particularly Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan Islands, and are spreading further, claiming more lives as incessant torrential rains continue unabated. In Jakarta, the floods killed 23 people, while in North Sulawesi, 19 fatalities were reported due to landslides and floods. Floods and landslides also hit Kudus district in Central Java, which displaced 9,178 people and claimed 12 lives. (*)