Indonesia quarry collapse: Owner among six people questioned by police after 17 deaths
The quarry owner is among those being quizzed as the investigation continues into what caused the incident at the Gunung Kuda quarry on Friday.
A dozen survivors have been found following the collapse in Cirebon district.
By Saturday afternoon, rescuers had retrieved 16 bodies, and one of the survivors died in hospital, according to local police chief Sumarni.
She said rescuers are searching for eight people still believed to be trapped in the rubble.
"The search operation has been hampered by bad weather, unstable soil and rugged terrain," added Sumarni, who goes by a single name, as is customary for many Indonesians.
Local television showed emergency personnel, police, soldiers and volunteers desperately digging through the debris at the foot of a steep limestone cliff on Saturday.
Further footage captured excavators trying to shift huge rocks and workers placing body bags in an ambulance.
Illegal or informal mines are common in Indonesia, and bring the risk of landslides, flooding and tunnel collapses.
On Friday, West Java governor Dedi Mulyadi said he had ordered the closure of this quarry, as well as four other similar sites in the province.
Last year, a landslide triggered by torrential rains wiped out an unauthorised gold mining operation on Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing at least 15 people.
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Bayesian victims could have been SAVED: Bombshell claim of world's leading salvage expert who believes doomed £30million superyacht could be refurbished
Victims onboard the doomed Bayesian superyacht could have been saved, one of the world's leading marine salvage experts sensationally claimed today. Seven people died when the 'unsinkable' 184ft vessel capsized off the coast of Sicily during a freak storm last August. British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, the owner of the £30million yacht, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among the victims. Italian rescuers attempted to save the six guests and one missing crew member after the disaster struck but their efforts failed. Had an extensive rescue operation to pump air into the yacht been immediately launched, captain Nick Sloane told the Daily Mail that six of the trapped victims could have potentially survived. Investigations are understood to have showed that all but one – Bayesian's 59-year-old chef Recaldo Thomas – found air pockets inside the hull, suggesting they did not die immediately as the vessel sank to the sea bed. The other six – Mr Lynch, 59, and his daughter; 71-year-old Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, 70; and Chris Morvillo, 59 and his 57-year-old wife Neda – were found in two cabins in Bayesian's lower deck. When 80mph winds struck the yacht's beam, causing it to heel violently to a 90-degree angle on her starboard side, Mr Lynch, the Bloomers and Morvillos sought shelter in a cabin on the port side of the ship. Miss Lynch was in a separate cabin, also on the port side of the ship. Mr Sloane, the South African who led the salvage operation for the Costa Concordia cruise ship which sank in January 2012 off the coast of Tusancy, said the discovery of the air pockets likely kept the six alive for a period of time while the ship filled with water and sank. He told the Daily Mail that when the divers arrived at the scene, they were hampered by their scuba gear which only allowed them a limited amount of time on the bottom. Rescuers could only spend 10 minutes at the Bayesian's depth of 50m, which made the process of searching the vessel tortuously slow. The divers had to contend with floating debris, ropes and furniture inside the vessel as they made their way into the lower accommodation areas. All that time, the amount of oxygen in the air pocket was reducing, being replaced by carbon dioxide. He said it could have taken a few days for a specialist team to arrive at the scene, but if the original divers had begun pumping air into the sunken yacht, it could have given some of those trapped in the port side cabins a chance of survival. Mr Sloane said that specialist dive equipment was available in the port of Augusta, on Sicily's southern coast. Normal scuba divers can only spend a limited time at depth to avoid risking 'the bends' – a potentially fatal decompression sickness where the nitrogen in the diver's blood starts to 'bubble'. Mr Sloane, who has knowledge of the case, added: 'When a yacht like that sinks there will always be air pockets and because of the keel, the vessel will either be lying on her port or starboard side. 'Bayesian was on her starboard side, so on the port side there would be these air pockets and you'd say "listen, lets just pump air in". 'You have no idea at this stage that if anyone is still alive, they may be unconscious after banging their head, but if someone is in the air pocket, let's keep them alive until we can get them out. 'Of course, when they found six of the seven victims, they were all in the port side air pockets and the sad thing is that they didn't drown. They died from a lack of air.' Once the vessel started filling with water, Mr Sloane said anyone below deck would have faced a nightmare scenario. The boat was laying on her starboard side, the same side where the spiral staircase from the accommodation area on the lower deck to the main deck was located. The water would have cascaded down the staircase, filling up that half of the boat first. Those in the port side cabins, which were now the highest part of the boat, faced the prospect of entering the onrushing flood to swim up into the saloon before trying to navigate their way past floating debris and out towards an exit. He said: 'If you are stuck down below and there's water coming in, you don't want to duck down and swim up to safety. It would take a highly trained person to do that. 'It is a really terrifying scenario. 'But if you think, potentially, if they had got oxygen or air pumped into the boat, they may have saved some people.' Mr Sloane told how he was involved in a recovery operation off the Nigerian coast when a tug sank in about 50m of water on May 26, 2013. Yet it quickly turned into a rescue mission once divers, who only arrived in the galley three days after the sinking, realised there was a survivor underwater. Mr Stone said: 'When the diver entered the galley, there was an air pocket. 'On the surface there was this thick layer of oil and slightly opaque water beneath it, so he kept his head below the surface to prevent his camera and light getting oiled.' After three days, the rescue team believed they were involved in an effort to retrieve bodies believing that nobody could survive underwater for so long. He said a chef, who survived the sinking, saw the diver and grabbed their hand. After the initial shock of finding a survivor, the diver helped the survivor, Harrison Ojegba Okene, into a rescue kit, before bringing him to a specialist decompression chamber. Because they were properly equipped, the team were able to pivot seamlessly from a body retrieval to a rescue operation. Mr Okene had to spend 60 hours in the decompression chamber before he was allowed to return to the surface. Unfortunately for Bayesian, the Italian rescuers, while highly experienced, did not have dive chambers that are routinely used by commercial operators. He said the Italian team was very experienced in cave rescues, but their scuba gear was not suitable for operating at such depth while trying to penetrate a sunken ship. Mr Stone added: 'They should have started pumping air in as soon as they could and then mobilised a dive chamber. If you are pumping air, they could be kept alive for a few days. It's worth trying.' Mr Sloane dismissed suggestions that Bayesian's sinking formed part of some conspiracy following Mr Lynch's acquittal on fraud charges in US Federal Court. Conspiracy theorists linked the sinking to the tragic death of Lynch's business partner, and fellow co-accused, Stephen Chamberlain. The 52-year-old was killed after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on August 17 – two days before Bayesian was lost. An interim report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch discovered hours before Bayesian was lost, her skipper, James Cutfield, decided to move the vessel along the Sicilian coast from Cefalù to Porticello ahead of predicted bad weather. Cutfield had instructed the deckhands on watch overnight to wake him immediately if winds increased above 20kts or if the vessel's anchor started to drag. Mr Sloane, who has been in the marine salvage business since the early 1980s, said the Bayesian was struck by hurricane force winds. However, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a yacht anchored just 500m away that later rescued survivors, escaped the same gusts. Mr Sloane said this suggested it was a 'very localised issue' that 'hit them rapidly'. He said: 'They were either hit by a waterspout or a downburst. 'Bayesian was 17 years old and it never had a problem before. They were hit by freak weather conditions.' According to Mr Sloane, Bayesian was being held on her port anchor which caused the vessel to twist sideways into the wind. He said if the crew had been able to let out more anchor chain, the bow would have swung back towards the wind, giving them a greater chance of survival. It would have also given the captain more time to engage the engines and steer towards the incoming storm, reducing the chance of capsizing. As the heavy weather approached, the crew member on watch was Matthew Griffiths, who was 22 at the time of the disaster. Mr Sloane said investigators would examine whether someone more senior should have been in the wheelhouse with approaching storms reported. He said someone with more experience may have raised the alarm earlier, possibly alerting the entire vessel, both passengers and crew about the impending danger. Italian authorities are continuing their investigation into the sinking, including into the actions of three of the crew, skipper Cutfield, chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton and deckhand Griffiths. Placing people under investigation in the Italian legal system is a procedural measure and does not imply any wrongdoing. The investigators were handed a major boost when a Dutch salvage team were able to refloat Bayesian. Mr Sloane said Bayesian's striking 75metre (236ft) mast will have also played a part in her sinking. Unlike her sister ships, which had two smaller masts, Bayesian needed to carry extra ballast to counter the forces created by the larger mast. This extra weight saw Bayesian sit 40cm lower in the water than her sister vessels. This, in turn, affected her angle of vanishing stability – the point beyond which it is impossible to recover from. Mr Sloane said: 'I don't think this was the sole cause of the tragedy, but it is a contributing factor. 'Bayesian had encountered bad weather before without problem.' He said a freak weather event, combined with her unusual design were significant factors behind the tragedy. According to Mr Sloane, now Bayesian has been recovered, there is a possibility it could be refurbished. He added: 'It could certainly be put back together far cheaper than building one from scratch. 'All of the electrics and equipment would be finished, of course. And you certainly wouldn't replace the massive mast. 'It all depends on the insurers and the families and whether anyone would want to buy a vessel where seven people died. She was a beautiful yacht.' Post mortems on all seven victims were carried out in the days following the disaster were carried out by Italian authorities. Inquests of the four British victims have been adjourned pending the conclusion of the investigation into the disaster. A pre inquest hearing at Suffolk Coroner's court gave the time of death of all four British victims as 5am - almost an hour after the yacht was hit by the freak storm. The brief hearing heard that Mr Lynch's preliminary cause of death was drowning while that of the remaining British victims was yet to be determined. In June 2025, Bayesian was refloated by a specialist Dutch salvage squad and taken 12 miles to the port of Termini Imerese where Italian investigators examined the boat in forensic detail, assessing whether vital watertight hatches were secured. The results of this examination will be passed to prosecutors who will determine if anyone was criminally liable for the sinking and the tragic deaths of seven people.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Peruvian woman accused of trying to smuggle cocaine into Bali using sex toy
A Peruvian woman has been arrested in Bali after allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine into the Indonesian resort island using a sex toy and hiding drugs in her underwear, police said. The 42-year-old, identified only by her initials NS, arrived at Bali's international airport from Qatar on 12 August when authorities became suspicious. 'The customs officers suspected her behaviour, and after consulting with the police, they did a further check on her,' Bali police narcotics unit director, Radiant, who like many Indonesians has one name, told a press conference. The officers found 1.4kg (3.1lbs) of cocaine inside a sex toy hidden in her genitals and in her underwear. Police also accused her of smuggling dozens of ecstasy pills. The Peruvian woman told the police she was hired to transport the drugs to Indonesia by a man she met on the dark web in April in return for $20,000, said Radiant. The woman has been charged under Indonesia's harsh narcotics law and could face the death penalty if found guilty. Last month, a Bali court sentenced a 46-year-old Argentine to seven years in prison after she was found guilty of smuggling 244 grams of cocaine wrapped with a condom that she hid inside her genitals. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws. There are dozens of traffickers on death row in the country, including a 69-year old British woman convicted of smuggling cocaine. Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, killing one Indonesian and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad.
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
Peruvian woman accused of trying to smuggle cocaine into Bali using sex toy
A Peruvian woman has been arrested in Bali after allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine into the Indonesian resort island using a sex toy and hiding drugs in her underwear, police said. The 42-year-old, identified only by her initials NS, arrived at Bali's international airport from Qatar on 12 August when authorities became suspicious. 'The customs officers suspected her behaviour, and after consulting with the police, they did a further check on her,' Bali police narcotics unit director, Radiant, who like many Indonesians has one name, told a press conference. The officers found 1.4kg (3.1lbs) of cocaine inside a sex toy hidden in her genitals and in her underwear. Police also accused her of smuggling dozens of ecstasy pills. The Peruvian woman told the police she was hired to transport the drugs to Indonesia by a man she met on the dark web in April in return for $20,000, said Radiant. The woman has been charged under Indonesia's harsh narcotics law and could face the death penalty if found guilty. Last month, a Bali court sentenced a 46-year-old Argentine to seven years in prison after she was found guilty of smuggling 244 grams of cocaine wrapped with a condom that she hid inside her genitals. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws. There are dozens of traffickers on death row in the country, including a 69-year old British woman convicted of smuggling cocaine. Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, killing one Indonesian and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad.
