Two women killed, two feared buried

DCP Yahya: ‘Police are carryingout search and rescue work’

KUALA LUMPUR: Two women were killed and two children were feared buried alive in a landslide that flattened three blocks of longhouses in Kampung Pasir, Ulu Klang here. 

A total of 232 people, mostly Indonesians, lived in the longhouses.  

The landslide also caused an electrical short circuit that set one of the affected longhouses ablaze in the 4.45pm incident, which happened during a rainfall. 

Rescue workers, including firemen, later pulled out the charred remains of two women, identified as Indonesians Hayati Mohd Yunus, 24, and Fatimah Suri, 73.  

Hayati's remains were recovered at 9pm and Fatimah about 10.30pm.  

At press time, the other two victims – girls aged three and four – had yet to be found. All four are believed to be related. 

Welfare Department officials said they had accounted for 228 victims and believed that the missing four were the two dead women and the girls.  

Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Yahya Udin said police were carrying out search and rescue work, together with members of the Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART), Fire and Rescue Department personnel, KL City Hall workers and Red Crescent Society volunteers. 

Ampang district police chief Asst Comm Azri Ahmad said at the scene that the short circuit was believed to have been triggered by a power pole brought down by the landslide. 

He said police were gathering information on the longhouse dwellers to ascertain the actual number of people trapped in the landslide. Police have also cordoned off the area to prevent intrusion by outsiders. 

A police spokesman said 16 families living at the nearby Taman Zooview were told to evacuate their homes as a precautionary measure. 

Several occupants of the longhouses said the landslide occurred in the wink of an eye, just after many of them had returned home from work. 

Awami Ahmad, 33, said she was at home rocking her eight-month-old child in the cradle, when she heard a loud crash. 

“When I ran out to see what was happening, I saw earth from the hill above moving towards our longhouses. 

“I immediately grabbed my baby and ran out of the house,” she added.  

Awami and her husband Ismail Rudin, 34, a contract worker, had been living there for five years. 

More pictures of the Ulu Klang Landslide 

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