The bodies of two people who were killed when a landslide hit part of their villa at the Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat in Ipoh will be claimed by their families tomorrow.
Post-mortem examinations on the victims, identified as Ooi Chee Wei, 39 and Lee Tze Juin, 32, would only be conducted tomorrow at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital (HRPB).
The families will only be allowed to claim their bodies once the examinations are completed.
The bodies arrived at the hospital at 11.17am today after being retrieved from the debris. Covid-19 tests will be run on the victims before a post-mortem can be done at 8am tomorrow.
It has now become standard operating procedure for Covid-19 tests to be conducted on bodies brought to mortuaries before post-mortem examinations can be carried out.
It was reported that a continuous downpour since yesterday is believed to have triggered the landslide which struck the Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat in Tambun today, killing two guests.
After almost 10 hours of search operations, the authorities managed to retrieve the bodies of Ooi and Lee.
Acting Perak Police chief Datuk Goh Boon Keng said the body of the man was first found at 9.55 am, before the body of a woman was discovered minutes later in a jacuzzi room of the victims’ villa.
“The relationship of the two victims has yet to be ascertained.
“Initial investigation found that the landslide occurred on the slope of one of the hills,” he told reporters at the scene.
Goh said the work to remove the two victims had to be postponed several times as there were soil and water movements, but the work was resumed at 7 am using a backhoe upon advice from the Perak Department of Minerals and Geosciences.
He said the resort’s staff discovered the landslide at around 1 am and quickly instructed all their clients in the four occupied units to save themselves, but the two victims were trapped.
Meanwhile, Perak Fire and Rescue Department director Azmi Osman said a 47-member team was involved in the search and rescue operation to locate the two victims, including the K9 unit from the Klang Valley.
“The 100m landslide and the soil and water movements were probably triggered by the heavy rain over the past few days,” he said.
Perak Department of Minerals and Geosciences deputy director Mat Niza Abdul Rahman, on the other hand, said an initial inspection found that the resort area was surrounded by limestone hills on the remaining soil overgrown with trees, but the soil became weak when exposed to rainwater.
“As the ground weakens, it caused the landslide which destroyed part of the resort area,” he said.
Mat Niza said that the department would hold discussions with the authorities for further action, including conducting a study on the safety level of the area, and that they did not rule out the possibility of similar incidents at the location.