KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Landslides caused by heavy rain buried 20 boys and 4 adults at a Malaysian orphanage on Saturday, and rescuers were digging through the mud with their hands to find the victims, the police said.
The bodies of five boys, ages 8 to 17, had been recovered. Six boys and a 30-year-old who were critically injured were pulled from the mud and taken to a hospital, said the district police chief, Abdul Rashid Wahab.
The orphanage is for ethnic Malay Muslim boys in a village in central Selangor State, he said. Rain was still falling in the evening, hampering work by some 200 firefighters, police officers and others.
“They just had lunch at the tent by the side of the house when two landslides apparently occurred at the same time. The tent collapsed, burying 24 people, as they did not have time to escape,” Chief Wahab said.
“Rescuers have to dig using their hands and other equipment because the soil surrounding is very soft due to the rain,” he said, adding that the search would continue for the nine children and three workers who remained buried.
A small stream runs near the orphanage, a large three-story house. Several tall trees fell in the disaster, and the house was partly covered in sludge.
People in several houses near the orphanage have been told to evacuate because of the concerns of additional landslides, Chief Wahab said.
Muhammad Hambali Ismail, 34, a worker at the orphanage, told the local news media that the children were preparing to receive visitors when the landslides struck.
“I heard a loud noise. Suddenly the earth was chasing me. I had to run to save myself,” he was quoted as saying by Berita Harian, a Malay language newspaper.
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