GEORGE TOWN, Oct 22 — About 80 per cent of the 100,000 sq ft site of the landslide location in Jalan Bukit Kukus in Paya Terubong near here have been removed in the search and rescue (SAR) operation which enters its fourth day today.  

Penang Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) deputy director Mohamad Shoki Hamzah said the remaining 20 per cent of the earth is in sector three which is expected to take two days to clear due to several difficulties in the area.   

"The third sector involved a pile of earth of about 20 metres high and we need to use a much larger excavator to remove the earth up to the base.

"We hope to find two more Bangladeshi men still missing at the site and the rescue team will be focussing on finding Ujai, 25, and Rahat, 33,” he told a press conference here today.

He said the department did not set a time frame for the SAR operation to find the two men and would continue to carry out the operation until it was satisfied there were no more victims at the incident location.

Mohamad Shoki said at the moment the canine unit (K-9) had identified one more location in sector three which may lead to finding the buried victims in the landslide. 

"With the good weather today, we hope to carry out the SAR operation until the rescue team is advised otherwise,” he said.

As at 5pm this evening, eight bodies have been found and they comprised three Indonesian men, four Bangladeshi men and a Myanmar woman while four people were found injured in the incident.

In the incident on Friday, a landslide at the Bukit Kukus Paired Highway construction site brought down workers’ cabins and quarters and buried them under an avalanche of earth. — Bernama