Two people have been buried alive in a landslide which struck a luxury villa resort in Tambun, Perak around 1am today (Nov 10).
The two identified victims – guests at The Banjaran Hotspring Resort – have been identified as Ooi Chee Wei, 39 and Lee Tze Jun, 32 and their relationship has yet to be ascertained, according to The Star.
The Perak Fire and Rescue Department, Azmi Osma said they received a distress call at 1.28am, and a team of firemen from Ipoh was dispatched to the scene.
The body of the man was first found at 9.55am, while the woman, was discovered later in a jacuzzi in one of the units at the resort.
The resort’s staff discovered the landslide at around 1am and quickly instructed all their clients in the four occupied units to save themselves, but the two victims were trapped.
NST reported that a search party found two pairs of sports shoes, believed to be owned by the victims, at the scene.
“The 100m landslide and the soil and water movements were probably triggered by the heavy rain over the past few days, ”, Azmi Osma said.
Department of Minerals and Geosciences deputy director Mat Niza Abdul Rahman, said an initial inspection found that the resort area was surrounded by limestone hills on the remaining soil overgrown with trees, but the soil became weak when exposed to rainwater.