40 people were victims of being buried by landslides at a gold mine in Indonesia, 15 people died, and 25 other victims were still buried by landslides.

As many as 25 people were still buried by landslides from a former gold mine in Solok Regency, West Sumatra, Indonesia on Thursday 26 September 2024. The people who were buried were suspected of carrying out illegal mining activities at that location.

where as many as 15 victims were reported dead and had been evacuated.

Head of the Solok Regency Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Irwan Effendi, said the landslide occurred due to quite high rainfall.

"Since the afternoon the last few days the rainfall has been quite high," he said.

Irwan explained that the location of the landslide was in the Abu River, Hiliran Gumanti District, Solok Regency. Access to the incident location can only be accessed by walking for 8 hours.

"The landslide location is a former gold excavation that was abandoned by previous miners," he said.

Meanwhile, the community has carried out the evacuation process since 03.00 WIB. The rescue process found that 15 people died.

"To date, 15 deceased victims have been successfully evacuated. "The Solok Regency health service has also sent 7 ambulances to the location to assist with the evacuation," said Irwan.

According to Irwan, the victim came from Nagari-nagari in Hiliran Gumanti and Pekonina Districts, South Solok Regency.

"The victims consisted of people who carried out gold panning activities manually. Data on the names and status of the victims has not yet been obtained because the evacuation process is still ongoing," said Irwan.

Meanwhile, the joint search and rescue team along with personnel from the military and police, assisted by the surrounding community, continue to search for 25 people who are still buried by the landslide.