Authorities deployed more than 200 search and rescue workers from the search and rescue service, the police and the military to search for 33 still-missing people trapped in houses buried under the landslide, which was 4 meters deep, it said.

Eight people were pulled alive from the water with injuries, three of whom are in critical condition, National Disaster Management Agency chief Suharyanto said Thursday. They were rushed to a hospital in the town of Pontianak on the island of Borneo, about 300 kilometers (186 mi) from Genting, late Monday, but one person died at sea en route.

The search and rescue operation was hampered by heavy rainfall around the disaster area. Weather has caused the search to be suspended several times, while downed communication lines and electricity have also hampered the operation, said Suharyanto, who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name.

“We are doing our best to find the missing victims,” ​​Suharyanto said, adding that sniffer dogs are also being mobilized in the search.

Two helicopters and several ships carrying rescuers, medical teams and relief supplies, including tents, blankets and food, arrived on the island from Jakarta and nearby islands on Wednesday.

Monday’s landslide displaced about 1,300 people who were taken to four temporary shelters, Suharyanto said. Authorities feared the death toll could rise.

Seasonal rains and high tides have triggered dozens of landslides and widespread flooding in recent days across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains close to rivers.

In November 2022, a landslide triggered by a magnitude 5.6 earthquake killed at least 335 people in Cianjur town in West Java, about a third of them children.