BATANG KALI, Malaysia: A landslide at a tourist campground in Malaysia on Friday killed 16 people, and authorities said 17 more were possibly buried at the site on an organic farm outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
According to district police chief Suffian Abdullah, an estimated 94 Malaysians were at the campsite in Batang Kali, central Selangor state, around 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur, when the incident occurred.
The death toll has risen to 16, he said, including a five-year-old boy. According to him, seven people have been hospitalized with injuries, and rescuers are looking for the estimated 17 missing people. Another 53 people were rescued safely.
Suffian stated that the victims entered the area on Wednesday, a popular recreational site for locals to pitch or rent tents from the farm. The search and rescue effort involved over 400 people, including tracking dogs.
According to the Selangor fire department, firefighters arrived at the scene half an hour after receiving a distress call at 2:24 a.m. The landslide was estimated to have fallen from a height of 30 meters (98 feet) and covered an area of approximately three acres (1.2 hectares). It shared images of rescuers digging through soil and rubble in the early hours of the morning with flashlights.
Some rescued families with small children sought refuge at a nearby police station. Survivors reported hearing a loud thundering noise before the soil collapsed.
The New Straits Times English-language daily quoted Leong Jim Meng, 57, as saying he and his family were awakened by a loud bang "that sounded like an explosion" and felt the earth move.
"My family and I were trapped because the soil had encroached on our tent. "We made it to a car-park area and heard a second landslide," he told the newspaper. He described it as surprising because there had been no heavy rain in the previous days, only light drizzles.
The campsite is on an organic farm near Genting Highlands, a popular tourist destination with theme parks and Malaysia's only casino. The roads leading to the area have been closed.