Tanjung Bungah landslide: Distraught family members eagerly await news

Photos by LIM BENG TATT, CHAN BOON KAI and ZHAFARAN NASIB

GEORGE TOWN: Distraught family members are waiting for news after hearing that their relatives are burred under in a landslide in Tanjung Bungah.

Bangladeshi national Mohd Bulumulah Mohd Atelmullah, 47, was seen seated on a pathway near the scene of the landslide.

He was in tears, worried about his nephew Nuralla Altapussh, 35, who is believed to be buried in the landslide.

"I do not know what to do. He came to work at 8am and this took place at 8.30am. I think he might be no more," he said when met at the scene.

Another Bangladeshi Mohd Awal Jafra Alma,21, said a friend alerted him that his younger brother Abdul Rahman, 18, was buried in landslide.

I hope he is okay but my friends told me he died. If he has passed away, I want to take his remains back to Bangladesh as my parents are ill and hospitalised there," he said.

A worker who was at the construction site when the incident happened said he escaped the landslide because he moved away.

Mohammad Jashim Husseif Ahmad, 27, said there were about 20 people at the scene.

Two victims have been confirmed dead and their bodies recovered.

The sheer face of the hill at a construction site near collapsed at about 8.30am Saturday morning.

The state Fire and Rescue Department’s initial report stated that the hill face that slid down was estimated to be 10m high.

Firemen, Civil Defence personnel, several ambulances and the police have arrived at the scene and have begun to search for the other buried victims.