At least eight people are dead and dozens are missing after a landslide struck a campsite in Malaysia early on Friday, officials said, as search and rescue personnel scoured the site for survivors
The landslide in Selangor state, on the outskirts of capital, Kuala Lumpur, occurred about 3 a.m. local time on the side of a road near a farmhouse that provides camping facilities, the state fire and rescue department said in a statement.
In a message on Twitter, the Malaysian disaster management agency also said 53 people had been rescued after the landslide engulfed a campsite in Selangor state and left dozens trapped.
The landslide fell from an estimated height of 30 metres above the campsite, and covered an area of about 4,000 square metres, the department’s director, Norazam Khamis, said.
“I pray that the missing victims can be found safely soon,” Malaysia’s minister of natural resources, environment and climate change, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, tweeted on Friday morning. “The rescue team has been working since early. I’m going down there today.”
The disaster struck just outside the Genting Highlands, a popular hill country area in Batang Kali district, north of the capital.
Pictures posted on the Father’s Organic Farm Facebook page show a farmhouse in a small valley, with a large area where tents can be set up.
Footage from local television showed the aftermath of a landslide through a forested area beside a road, while other images on social media showed rescue workers clambering over thick mud, large trees and other debris.
Selangor is the country’s most affluent state and has suffered landslides before, often attributed to forest and land clearance.
The region is in its rainy season but no heavy rain or earthquakes were recorded overnight.
A year ago, about 21,000 people were displaced by flooding from torrential rain in seven states across the country.
