CAMERON HIGHLANDS: The area affected by the landslide at Batu 59, Kampung Raja, is strewn with massive trees that toppled along with the landslide.
This was confirmed by the commander of the search and rescue operation, Wan Zaidi Wan Mokhtar from the Cameron Highlands Fire and Rescue Station who led the team to the scene of the incident.
He said the first team with six firemen started entering the scene at 3.24am.
The situation at the scene at that time was only filled with heaps of trees and loose soil, causing some difficulty in locating the victim's position. he added.
"During the observation, we found a stream of water from the upper area to a place that we suspect is the site of the victim's house.
"There seems to be a water reservoir there and from that discovery, we started the search and rescue operation," he told reporters near the scene.
Wan Zaidi said the search operation was carried out by manual methods using equipment such as hoes and shovels slowly for fear of injuring the victim's limbs.
He said the digging work that was done for almost two hours finally managed to find one victim at a distance of about two meters from the site of the house.
"The victim was found stuck between the trunks of the trees. The victim was still in perfect condition, fully clothed, only covered in mud and suffered severe head injuries," he said.
He said information from a witness of the incident who is a co-worker of the victim also helped find the victim.
"They live about 50 meters from the scene and heard a loud bang accompanied by the sound of earth moving and trees breaking before realising that two houses in the area had disappeared under the rubble.
"It is possible that all the victims did not go far and were only around the landslide area," he said.
It is understood that, before the incident, heavy and continuous rain had hit the area since Wednesday.
The search and rescue operation launched yesterday managed to find two victims, namely Haphey and another person whose identity has not been identified while the other three are still buried.
