Indonesia landslide death toll rises to 9 as rescue suspended: official

The death toll in a landslide near a gold mine in eastern Indonesia rose to 9 people as rescuers recovered three bodies on Tuesday, an official said.

Intense rains had triggered the landslide and floods in a remote area of West Papua province on Friday evening.

"Eleven (people) are still being searched for. Nine have been found dead," Yefri Sabaruddin, head of a local search and rescue agency, told AFP.

The three victims found on Tuesday, all men, were pulled from under piles of wood and mud near a river, he said, adding that the bodies were transferred to a police hospital in the provincial capital of Manokwari.

But the search was suspended from Tuesday afternoon due to more heavy rains in the area that rescuers feared could trigger another landslide.

Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, typically between November and April.

A landslide at an illegal gold mine in West Sumatra in September killed 13 people and injured 12 others.

And at least 27 people were killed after another landslide near an illegal gold mine on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in last July.

© Agence France-Presse