Condo 'may collapse anytime'
The police have ordered residents from a condominium tower located near the landslide site in Bukit Antarabangsa to evacuate immediately.
The police have ordered residents from a condominium tower located near the landslide site in Bukit Antarabangsa to evacuate immediately.
According to Bernama, Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said that there were fears that the building "may collapse at any time".
The Public Works Department has found the area where the Kyoto Garden Condominium is located to be risky. The condo sits on a hillside near the landslide area. [See correction below]
Khalid also said a temporary bridge has been completed by the army, allowing more than 100 stranded vehicles to leave the area.
Tenaga Nasional Berhad will also be bringing in generators to restore power supply to homes which had been without electricity since yesterday.
The disaster hit early yesterday, burying 14 houses at the upmarket suburb in northeast Kuala Lumpur, cutting off access for thousands of residents and disrupting water, electricity and phone lines.
Among the four dead was a 20-year-old who was found by his father buried under the rubble still clutching a mobile phone, the Star reported.
The search and rescue operation ended at 4.30pm today when the 500-strong team confirmed that there were no more victims buried in the landslide.
Police have ordered 3,000 to 5,000 residents living nearby to evacuate their homes.
The landslide occurred after days of heavy rains in the area, which is prone to slippages. In 2006, four people were killed and 43 homes destroyed in a nearby suburb.
And in 1993, a landslide triggered by heavy rains caused a 12-storey condominium tower, the Highland Towers, to collapse, killing 48 people.
House owners want good views
In the wake of the disaster, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has banned hillside developments.
"I am sure this will incur the wrath of individual landowners and developers but enough is enough," Abdullah said.
He ordered all current projects to be frozen while soil tests are carried out.
"Future projects will also not go on to prevent any further worsening of the soil conditions at the hilly area," he added.
"Malaysians never want to learn from past experiences. They want good views while developers only seek to profit ... no one takes safety and soil stability into consideration," the prime minister said.
"We will be courting more tragedies if we do not care and protect hillsides," he said.
Meanwhile, opposition parliamentarian Lim Kit Siang accused the government of "sheer criminal negligence" over the incident.
He said in a statement that officials bore responsibility for "closing an eye to dangerous hillside developments and in totally ignoring the lessons of the Highland Towers tragedy 15 years ago."
Correction: Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar later said that he had made a mistake - the affected building was Impian Selatan Condominium, not Kyodo Garden Condominium. He said other unsafe areas were Taman Bukit Mewah, Jalan 6A Taman Bukit Jaya and Jalan 9 Taman Wangsa Ukay.
