Landslide near Genting: Victim thought he heard explosion, felt the earth move
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BATANG KALI, Selangor - Mr Leong Jim Meng was asleep in a tent on a rural farm when he thought he heard an explosion and felt the earth moving in the early hours of Friday.
“We were sleeping when the incident happened at 2am. It was too dark to see clearly what was happening,” he told Malaysia’s Berita Harian daily.
He was among dozens who were camping on a farm at the foot of Genting Highlands for the December holidays.
The authorities said that the campsite, which is at Father’s Organic Farm in Batang Kali on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, had been hit by a major landslide,
Local Government Development minister Nga Kor Ming said the campsite was operating illegally.
Mr Leong’s family was initially trapped after their tent was covered with debris, but they managed to escape to a nearby carpark.
He called the authorities, and they arrived 30 minutes later, he told the daily.
Berita Harian quoted Mr Leong as saying that his family was caught by surprise as it had not been raining heavily during the past few days, although there had been drizzle.
Like other victims who were rescued, the family was taken by the authorities to the nearby Hulu Yam Bharu police station for immediate treatment for possible injuries.
The campsite is located on Jalan Batang Kali-Jalan Genting Highlands, about 4.5km from Gohtong Jaya – a town below the Genting Highlands peak.
Another victim, Ms Teh Lynn Xuan, 22, said she had set up a tent with her family members at the campsite with 40 other campers. But the tent was toppled in the landslide.
Ms Teh and her mother managed to crawl to a safe space, but one of her younger brothers died while another one was sent to hospital, Berita Harian reported.
The newspaper quoted an employee at Father’s Organic Farm, Mr Thawn Uk, 35, as saying that he and 12 other workers managed to escape from the site. One of them was injured in the leg and was sent to hospital.
