On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, landslides caused at least eighteen deaths

On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a search and rescue team discovered 18 bodies from landslides, and they are still hunting for two more, authorities said on Monday.

Mexianus Bekabel, the head of Makassar Search and Rescue, said that on Sunday afternoon, rescuers discovered around 14 dead in Makale village and four in South Makale.

The chairman of the Tana Toraja district Disaster Management Agency, Sulaiman Malia, said on Monday, “We are still looking for two more victims, but fog and drizzle made the search difficult and officers in the field were overwhelmed.”

In the Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, shortly before midnight on Saturday, mudslides caused by heavy rains spilled over four homes, according to local police commander Gunardi Mundu. He said that when the avalanche occurred, a family get-together was taking place in one of the homes.

According to Mundu, dozens of police, military, and volunteers joined the search in the isolated mountain settlements of Makale and South Makale. Two wounded individuals, one of whom was eight years old, were successfully extracted by rescuers early on Sunday and sent to a local hospital.

Rescue attempts were being hampered by downed communications lines, inclement weather, and unstable terrain, according to Muhari.

Among Tana Toraja’s numerous well-liked tourist attractions are its traditional homes and tau-tau, or wooden sculptures of corpses buried in caves.

Millions of people live in hilly regions or fertile flood plains in Indonesia, a network of 17,000 islands, where seasonal downpours often result in landslides and floods.