4th body recovered from Tanjung Bungah landslide

GEORGE TOWN: Rescue officials have recovered another body from the construction site in Tanjung Bungah where a landslide occurred this morning.

The Penang fire and rescue department said the fourth body was that of a man, but that his identity was yet to be ascertained.

Earlier today, authorities identified the three bodies recovered as that of Bangladeshi men working on the two-tower condominium project.

Rescue officials have also confirmed that a total of 14 victims were buried alive in this morning’s landslide in Tanjung Bungah here.

Only one out of the 14 victims is Malaysian, while the remaining 13 comprised Indonesians, Bangladeshis and Rohingyas.

Earlier reports that two people had been rescued were inaccurate as sources at the site had mistaken a number of people who were injured near the area of the landslide as having been buried under the rubble as well.

Meanwhile, Penang fire and rescue services department director Saadon Mokhtar said three dogs from the K-9 unit had been deployed to search for the victims.

He said the rescue or recovery of the remaining 11 people would take time as the landslide that covered an area of 160 square metres was at least 35 metres deep.

In the 8.50am incident, a 10m-high hill slope came crashing down onto the construction site located near the Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) in Tanjung Bungah.

The sole Malaysian victim in the incident was a site supervisor who was a TARC graduate.

The affordable housing condominium being developed by a private company was slated to be completed by June 2020, with two 49-storey towers consisting of 980 units. -FMT