TANA TORAJA, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers recovered the bodies of a 3-year-old girl and her mother, the last victims still missing after landslides killed 20 on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, authorities said Tuesday.
The steep, muddy terrain blocked heavy equipment from coming in, forcing rescuers to dig through the mud with handheld tools. At least 20 search and rescue officers took part in the search, as well as dozens of residents.
Mud loosened by torrential rain poured from surrounding hills onto four houses Saturday at South Makale village in the Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, said local police chief Gunardi Mundu. He said a family gathering was being held in one of the houses when the landslide hit.
The last two victims were found late Tuesday afternoon as heavy rains continued. Rescuers carried them away, wrapped in orange body bags, across a dark and rainy field with the help of torches.
Dozens of soldiers, police and volunteers joined the search in the remote hillside villages of Makale and South Makale, Mundu said. Rescuers early Sunday managed to pull out two injured people, including an 8-year-old girl, and rushed them to a hospital.
Tana Toraja has many popular tourist attractions, including traditional houses and wooden statues of bodies buried in caves, known as tau-tau.
Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or fertile flood plains.
In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers search for survivors at a village hit by a landslide in Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, Monday, April 15, 2024. A search and rescue team found multiple people killed by landslides on Indonesia's Sulawesi island and are still looking for a few missing, officials said Monday. (National Search and Rescue Agency via AP)
In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers search for survivors at a village hit by a landslide in Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, Sunday, April 14, 2024. A search and rescue team found multiple people killed by landslides on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island and are still looking for a few missing, officials said Monday. (National Search and Rescue Agency via AP)
In this photo released by Tana Toraja Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD Tana Toraja), rescuers search for victims of a landslide in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, April 15, 2024. Loosened by torrential rain, mud poured from surrounding hills onto houses just before midnight on Saturday killing a number of people, officials said. (BPBD Tana Toraja via AP)
MADRID (AP) — Spain is in suspense Monday as it waits for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to announce whether he will continue in office.
Sánchez shocked the country on Wednesday, announcing he was taking five days off to think about his future after a court opened preliminary proceedings against his wife on corruption allegations.
Sánchez essentially has four options: resign, seek a parliamentary vote of confidence, call a new election or remain in office. He is to announce his decision at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT).
Any one of those choices could upset key legislative plans as well as a crucial election in the Catalonia region in May and the European Parliament election in June.
Sánchez, 52, has been Spain’s prime minister since 2018. He was able to form a new minority leftist coalition government in November to start another four-year term thanks to the exceedingly fragile support of a handful of small regional parties. He is one of Europe’s longest-serving Socialist leaders and, while popular internationally, he divides opinion in Spain.
The legal complaint against Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, was filed by a far-right legal platform that says Gómez used her position to influence business deals.
The group, Manos Limpias, or “Clean Hands,” acknowledged that the complaint was based on newspaper articles. Spanish prosecutors say it should be thrown out.
Sánchez said the move was too personal an attack on his family and he needed time to decide on his priorities.
“Total uncertainty before Sánchez’s decision,” read the front-page headline of leading Spanish daily El País.
Sánchez blames the investigation on online news sites politically aligned with the leading opposition conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox party that spread what he called “spurious” allegations.
His supporters say this should be a wake-up call to react against baseless attacks that are poisoning Spanish politics.
Several demonstrations were held in Madrid in his support over the weekend.
The Popular Party, however, said Sánchez’s behavior was frivolous, adolescent and unbecoming of a European leader. It said the decision was a tactical ploy to whip up support for electoral purposes.
Nagore Calvo Mendizabal, a senior lecturer in Spanish and European politics and society at King’s College London, said that Sanchez’s decision could be “another of his political maneuvers" and that it could benefit him by whipping up support nationally in the battle against attacks from the right.
Find more of AP's Europe coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/europe
FILE - A poster of the leader of Socialist Party Pedro Sanchez is ripped out in Madrid, Dec. 16, 2015. Spain is in nail-biting suspense Monday as it waits for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to announce whether he will continue in office or not. Sanchez, 52, shocked the country on Thursday, announcing he was taking five days off to think about his future after a court opened preliminary proceedings against his wife on corruption allegations. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza, File)
FILE - Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addresses the media at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. Spain is in nail-biting suspense Monday as it waits for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to announce whether he will continue in office or not. Sanchez, 52, shocked the country on Thursday, announcing he was taking five days off to think about his future after a court opened preliminary proceedings against his wife on corruption allegations. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
FILE - Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez next to his wife Begona Gomez, gives a thumb up during a campaign closing meeting in Madrid, Spain, Friday, July 21, 2023. Spain is in nail-biting suspense Monday as it waits for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to announce whether he will continue in office or not. Sanchez, 52, shocked the country on Thursday, announcing he was taking five days off to think about his future after a court opened preliminary proceedings against his wife on corruption allegations. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
