New Delhi : On Tuesday, disaster officials stated that rescuers were searching for 42 individuals who went missing after two landslides triggered by heavy rains hit villages on an island in Indonesia’s remote Natuna regency. Dozens of soldiers, police, and volunteers joined the search in the Genting and Pangkalan villages on a remote island surrounded by choppy waters and high waves in the Natuna group at the edge of the South China Sea. Reports indicate that 42 individuals were trapped in 27 houses buried under tons of mud from surrounding hills.

Natuna’s disaster agency lowered the death toll Tuesday morning to 10 from 11 despite fears it could rise. It said that rescuers pulled 8 injured people from the landslides, 4 of whom were in critical condition and have been rushed to a hospital in Pontianak city on Borneo island, about 285 kilometers (180 miles) away. The landslides displaced over 1,200 people who were taken to evacuation centers and other shelters.

According to National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari, authorities are still gathering information on the full extent of casualties and damage in the affected areas. Two helicopters and several vessels carrying rescuers and relief supplies, including tents, blankets, food, and medical teams, have departed from Jakarta and nearby islands. Muhari noted that “distribution of relief supplies has been difficult because the injured and displaced are spread out and hard to reach,” and the search and rescue operation has been hampered by rainy weather around the disaster site, downed communications lines, and lack of heavy equipment.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains close to rivers. In November 2022, a landslide triggered by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake killed at least 335 people in West Java’s Cianjur city, about a third of them children.