Location of the landslide where victims were buried dangerous

The location of the search area for an Indonesian couple who are believed to be buried under the debris at the Sungai Kabok vegetable farm in Bertam Valley, here poses a high risk.

The Operations Officer of the Operations and Rescue Division of the State Fire and Rescue Department, Fire Superintendent Alimuddin Bukri said the search mission was difficult and dangerous because the gradient of the slopes in the operations area was between 70 and 80 degrees.

"If there is any soil movement and anything happens to the banana trees there, it means that the lives of the personnel in the area are in danger because the gradient at the location is very steep.

"Furthermore, the area there does not receive any communication coverage which poses a problem to the firemen to make any form of contact should anything happen," he said when met, here on Thursday.

Alimuddin said the time taken to walk from the road to the tragedy location would take one-and-a-half hours.

The bridge linking the road to the farm had collapsed due to the raging currents and the only way to get to the location was by climbing the hill, he said.

"The long time taken to reach the location of the tragedy is because we carry rescue equipment. If we are to go without the equipment, it takes only 45 minutes to reach the location," he explained.

He said that the earth movement was also among the factors that made it more difficult for the rescue mission to carry out the operation.

"As such, the Tracker Dog Unit (K9) of the Fire and Rescue Department will assist the search mission Friday. The unit is tasked with determining the location of the search operations," he added.