Buried in their sleep

Landslide in Bali: Two tourists dead

Symbolic image

(Bild: kwanchaichaiudom/stock.adobe.com)

Two foreign tourists have died in a landslide on the Indonesian vacation island of Bali. After a heavy downpour during the night, a wooden house in the village of Jatiluwih was hit by a landslide on Thursday morning, according to an official from the disaster control authority. The vacationers were buried in their sleep, he said. "There were two victims lying in a bed, a man and a woman," the official said.

The 47-year-old woman was from Australia but lived in the USA. The nationality of her male companion was initially unclear, according to the authorities. The bodies of the victims were taken to a hospital in the provincial capital Denpasar. According to the official, the rain had damaged canals used for irrigation above the villa, causing the landslide.

Deforestation favors landslides
In Indonesia, flooding and landslides often occur during the rainy season, which began at the end of November on the 17,000 or so islands in the archipelago. The problem has been exacerbated in some places by deforestation. Last week, at least 27 people died in floods and landslides on the island of Sumatra as a result of heavy rainfall.