Batang Kali landslide: Sweeper team searching for signs of victims around ground zero come up empty

PETALING JAYA: A sweeper team has been dispatched to search areas surrounding the Batang Kali landslide's ground zero, says Selangor Fire and Rescue Department.

Its assistant director (operation) Hafisham Mohd Noor said the team was dispatched following their inability to find the remaining nine more victims after an exhausting search at ground zero.

"After all our efforts, we have yet to receive any sign of the nine victims so today we dispatched a sweeper team that helped to search areas surrounding ground zero, meaning around the river and others to see whether the victims are there.

"But they found nothing," he said, adding that the team consisted of three officers, including a team leader.

Hafisham said authorities have searched almost all areas in ground zero however there was no sign of the missing victims.

"We have dug up to the original land but we have yet to find any sign related to the victims.

"We have added more heavy machinery to help segregate the soil (that they have dug up) to different areas.

"The ground is soft and muddy so we had to cut down trees to make "floors" for heavy machinery, to prevent it from submerged into the soft ground," he said.

A total of 24 were killed during the early morning landslide that hit the Father's Organic Farm on Friday (Dec 16).