The Jakarta Globe, Apr 07, 2014
The southern West Java railway route will see a temporary shutdown after a landslide triggered by heavy rain derailed a train traveling across Java on Friday, leaving five people dead, according to an official.
“We expect the route to re-open in the next several days, ” Zunerfin, spokesman for Kereta Api Indonesia’s Bandung office, said on Sunday.
Some 250 passengers were on board the train as it traveled from Bandung in West Java to Malang in East Java.
The land slipped away from under the tracks as the train passed through Tasikmalaya, West Java, at around 6:30 p.m., said national disaster agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
Three of the train’s eight carriages derailed and five people were killed, he said.
“Three bodies have been evacuated from underneath the carriages but two others remain trapped. We are still searching for them,” Sutopo said.
The remaining passengers were transferred to other forms of transport, said Nugroho, who did not have information on injuries sustained during the incident.
Train accidents are common on Indonesia’s ageing and poorly maintained railroad network, the worst of which struck in Bintaro, South Jakarta, in 1987 when two trains collided head-on. Over 300 passengers were wounded during the crash while 156 lost their lives.
Landslides and floods are also a frequent occurrence during the archipelago’s six-month rainy season.
Torrential rains on Wednesday in North Sumatra and West Java also triggered two fatal landslides that killed 11 people, police said.
Eight gold miners, working illegally, were killed after they were buried by a landslide while working in a gold mine concession operated by the state-owned Aneka Tambang in Nanggung, Bogor, on Wednesday, according to the chief of Nanggung Police, Adj. Cmr. Nyoman Suparta.
The men were working inside a tunnel when the walls collapsed. All eight victims have been recovered from the site and returned to their families.
Nyoman said police had experienced difficulties in securing the location from opportunistic individual miners because of the scale of the site.
In Sibolga, North Sumatra, three people died and three others were seriously injured after a landslide buried two homes in Aek Parombunan village, South Sibolga.
Three additional victims were rushed to Ferdinand Lumban Tobing general hospital in Sibolga with serious injuries.
In February, 11 people died and several were injured after landslides occurred in Papua.
Sutopo, the BNPB spokesman, said the incidents took place in the districts of North Jayapura, Abepura and South Jayapura. At least 40 houses were damaged while 15 others were severely damaged during the disaster.
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ma 7 apr 2014 - 20:32