BATANG KALI, Dec 20 — The search and rescue (SAR) sweeper team that was deployed to a river area near ground zero to hunt for the remaining nine victims of the landslide incident here, has been increased to 28 compared to only seven people yesterday.

Selangor Fire and Rescue assistant director (Operations) Hafisham Mohd Noor said the team comprises personnel from the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) and the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM).

"This team will comb through the ground zero area up to the nearby river, Sungai Kedondong which is a three to four-kilometre distance.

"We are looking at the possibility of some victims being swept away there (river),” he told a press conference here today.

Hafisham said the operation which is into its fifth day today started off at 8 this morning with the rescue team having to cope with the soft ground in the ground zero area and still clueless on the whereabouts of the missing victims.

"The main problem is we don’t know where the victims are and the excavation and search are based on the data shown in the piles of soil and also information from witnesses,” he said.

The landslide that struck at 2.42am last Friday at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite, Gohtong Jaya has so far claimed 24 lives with nine victims still missing, while 61 of the 94 victims were rescued.

Yesterday the operation was conducted by 135 members who were assisted by assets from various agencies including sniffer dogs from the K9) dog detection unit but as of 12 midnight, they could not locate any missing victim. — Bernama