Indonesian rescuers search for nearly three dozen people after landslides killed at least 18 people

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Rescue workers dug through tons of mud and rubble on Monday as they searched for 34 missing people after two separate landslides in two different regions on Indonesia’s main island of Java killed at least 18 people.

Rescuers recovered more bodies since landslides triggered by torrential rains on Thursday evening that hit dozens of houses in three villages in the Cilacap district of Central Java province, increasing the death toll to 16, said Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, or BNPB.

More than 500 rescue personnel, including police and soldiers, supported by 22 excavators and 18 sniffer dogs, have been deployed in five devastated areas in Cilacap to search for seven villagers reportedly still missing as search efforts continued for a fifth day on Monday, Muhari said in a video statement.

A similar landslide had struck Central Java's Banjarnegara district just before dusk on Saturday when tons of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried at least 30 houses, prompting more than 800 residents to flee to safety, some of them to even higher ground prone to further landslides, Muhari said.

He said that rescuers on Monday retrieved at least two bodies from devastated areas in Banjarnegara and were searching for 27 people reported missing, while local authorities struggled to evacuate dozens of residents who fled to vulnerable hills to safer government shelters.

BNPB was conducting a weather modification operation using an aircraft with a total of 3,000 kilograms (more than three tons) of seeding material for the operation since Sunday “to ensure weather conditions remain stable to support more effective search efforts" in both Cilacap and Banjarnegara districts, Muhari said.

Cloud seeding involves dispersing particles into clouds to create precipitation. Muhari said that the aim of modifying the weather was to redirect the rain elsewhere and keep the search operation free of downpours, which could hamper the rescuers’ progress.

Images released by BNPB showed rescue workers, supported by excavators, digging desperately in villages where green-terraced rice fields were transformed into murky brown mud, and villages were covered by thick mud, rocks and uprooted trees.

Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or in fertile flood plains.