THE Selangor Fire and Rescue Department found four new leads today on the possibility of finding bodies under the rubble of a landslide that occurred at a campsite along the Batang Kali-Genting Highlands route. 

Selangor Fire and Rescue Department director Norazam Khamis said the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was very helpful in narrowing the search area in all sectors. 

“The GPR has detected objects suspected to be human bodies underground, and has so far helped identify 14 points,” he said, adding that not all of them resulted in the discovery of human remains.

Meanwhile, Hulu Selangor police chief Suffian Abdullah said the registration plate numbers of the seven vehicles involved in the landslide on Friday were recorded to identify their owners. 

He said police will examine all the licence plates to see if they are related to the nine victims who are still missing.

Norazam said that although no soil movement was detected at the SAR location so far this afternoon, the search team was urged to remain alert due to the rainy weather.

“The safety of the team is a priority at this time. In this situation, we instruct the members to reduce their movements, only stay within the sectored locations and not make any aggressive movements.

“Currently, sector A is the riskiest spot because it is in a sloping area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Norazam said most of the bodies recovered were found intact.

He said although the soil movement posed some risk to the SAR team, the situation also provided an advantage in terms of the search.

“Most of the bodies were found at a depth of 1-2m, and due to the soil movement, the victims were pushed forward, so it made it easier for the team to find them with the help of an excavator.

He said the operation was stopped for about an hour at 4.30pm due to rain before resuming at 5.30pm, but had to be halted again 8.15pm due to heavy rain. – Bernama, December 18, 2022.