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Process underway to retrieve bodies of landslide victims in South Tapanuli. (ANTARA/HO) - 

The National Search and Relief Agency (Basarnas) has deployed additional personnel to evacuate landslide victims around the Batang Toru hydroelectric power plant (PLTA) project site in South Tapanuli Regency of North Sumatra Province.

"Currently, 21 Basarnas personnel have partaken (in the evacuation process)," Head of the Emergency and Logistics Division of the South Tapanuli Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Hotmatua Rambe, stated here on Saturday.

The total 21 personnel comprised 10 people from Medan, seven from Toba, and four from Sibolga.

The presence of additional personnel from Basarnas bolsters the evacuation efforts also being undertaken by the army, with its 25 personnel; the police, with its 25 members; 10 BPBD officers; 10 sub-district officers; and supervisory officers of PT NSHE (North Sumatra Hydro Energy) Company; as well as officers from the Batang Toru Hydroelectric Power Plant (PLTA).

All officers, partaking in the evacuation process, will return to the site of the landslide on Saturday morning to look for other victims buried under the landslide rubble and yet untraceable."Since the first day of the search on Friday until it was stopped, the joint team managed to evacuate three victims," he remarked.

Meanwhile, PT NSHE Communication and External Affairs Director, Firman Taufick, noted in a statement received by ANTARA that two Synohidro employees -- Long Quan (WNA) and Dolan Sitompu, a local resident -- went missing in the landslides that struck Wek I of Batang Toru Sub-district.

"We hope and pray that the evacuation process conducted by the joint team on the second day of search for the victims would run smoothly," he stated.

Some 12 residents and workers of PLTA Batang Toru are suspected to have been buried in the landslides. Meanwhile, the partially damaged bodies of three deceased were found//ANT