Bukit Antarabangsa, Selangor: Four people died and at least one other person was feared buried as a massive landslide crushed homes near Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said the dead were Mr Shaiful Khas Shahrudin, 20, Dr N. Yogeswari, 40, Mr Eng Yee Peng, 30, an Indonesian maid identified as Surinah, and an unidentified man. Efforts to bring out the man's body were ongoing.

No more Hari Raya celebrations for survivors KUALA LUMPUR - THEY may have been all packed to balik kampung for the upcoming Aidiladha celebration, but for one family, all they had packed for was a weekend at an evacuation centre. Ms Zaliha Ngah, 38, and her family had planned to leave for her hometown Terengganu today, but the massive landslide that occurred at about 4am today in Bukit Antarabangsa, Hulu Klang, near here, forced them to cancel their plans. ... more

'The operation will continue round the clock until we are sure that there are no more victims trapped in the buried houses. As the area is still unstable, we are moving very cautiously,' Mr Khalid told reporters at the scene.

He also said the post-mortems on three of the bodies recovered earlier indicated that they died from suffocation while the post-mortem on the Indonesian maid would be done tomorrow.

Mr Khalid said residents who had been asked to move out of the area were accommodated at Sekolah Kebangsaan Hulu Kelang which had been turned into a relief centre.

'They will be allowed to return home after the Malaysian Institute of Public Works (Ikram) has confirmed that the area is safe.'

Until 9.30pm, 48 families had registered at the school but only 10 chose to stay there while the others opted for other accommodation.

Earth and boulders covered 14 bungalows and blocked the only access road near the top of Bukit Antarabangsa, trapping at least 2,000 residents.

Rescue workers had to cut a path through the bushes and use ropes to help residents walk to safety.

Some people had to cross a tiny makeshift bridge over a huge monsoon drain in order to get to the main road.

The disaster happened at 4am when most people were still asleep in Bukit Antarabangsa.

The hilly area is prone to landslides and has become notorious for questionable development since a 1993 landslide at the Highland Towers killed 48 people.

Heavy rains have inundated Kuala Lumpur and many parts of the Klang Valley recently.

Yesterday's tragedy came just five days short of the 15th anniversary of the collapse of the Highland Towers condominium. The abandoned building was just hundreds of metres from the site of yesterday's landslide.

Housewife Siti Baharuddin, 28, who lives near the devastated bungalows, told The Sunday Times that she saw cars and whole slabs of road tar ending up on rooftops.

She watched in horror as masses of earth crumpled houses.

'We just moved here. We never expected something like this to happen,' she said, as she comforted her crying nine-month-old daughter just outside the disaster scene.

A 45-year-old banker who was trapped in his home said by telephone that some of the wrecked bungalows were pushed 100m.

'We can't get out because there is a 'hill' now on what was the access road,' said the banker, who declined to be named. He and his family later used the path made by rescue workers to leave their home.

Helicopters hovered above as some 200 policemen, military personnel and medical workers at the scene searched for survivors.

Two pregnant women, two elderly women and a stroke patient were among those airlifted to safety.

Residents said that electricity and water supplies to the area have been cut off since dawn yesterday.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor told Bernama news agency that 16 electrical substations had been damaged.

Writer Yusuf Martin, 57, who just moved into the area with his wife a few months ago, said they were about to leave the house at 5am when they found that they were trapped.

'It is a really tragic sight,' he said. 'Houses are splintered apart, lifted and swept onto the road. The road is in pieces as well.'

There was chaos in the late morning as the only road in the area was jammed with bulldozers, excavators and huge lorries going in.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 residents, mainly those living in condominiums close to the landslide area, were also told to evacuate for their safety as the ground was unstable.

Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said that movements in the earth were still being detected when digging was carried out more than 12 hours after the landslide.

Hundreds of traumatised residents were seen leaving the area on foot, with babies in prams, luggage and pets in carriers.

A school hall and a nearby mosque were used as shelter for the homeless residents, but many sought to stay with relatives or friends.

Residents blamed deforestation, over-development of the area and the recent rains for the latest tragedy.

One resident was lucky to escape the brush with death.

The principal private secretary of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab, said he did not return home yesterday as planned but decided to spend the night at his mother's home.

His bungalow was among the 14 buried under the massive rubble.

'I thank God that I'm safe. Maybe it was God's will,' he told Bernama.

hazlinh@sph.com.sg

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