The search and rescue operation for victims of the landslide in Jalan Bukit Kukus, Paya Terubong which enters its third day today found the bodies of three more victims.

The three bodies found today were Bangladeshis Mithu Hossain, 30, and his fellow villager Mustak Hossain, 25, as well as Mohamad Abd Jalil, 31.

The bodies of Mithu and Mustak were found stacked on top of each other under four metres of earth, while the body of Mohamad was found in a gruesome condition under 10 metres of earth.

With the discovery of the three bodies, the total number of dead victims in the Friday afternoon incident now stands at seven comprising two Indonesian men, four Bangladeshi men and a Myanmar woman.

The two bodies found on Friday were Attrul, 35, (Bangladeshi) discovered at 3.30pm and Samsul Asman, 19, (Indonesian) at 5.08pm, while the two bodies found yesterday were Myanmar woman Khin Aye Khaing (1.30am) and Indonesian, Bahtiar, 36, (11.55am).

In the landslide at the construction site of the paired highway project in Bukit Kukus, there were four injured victims while three more were still feared missing under landslip earth.

One of the injured man, Shamim, 24, of Bangladesh who was treated at Penang Hospital, was today transferred to the intensive care unit after he was found having internal injuries.

The three victims who were reported still missing are Indonesian man Subairi and two Bangladeshi men identified as Ujal, 33, and Rahat, 25.

The search and rescue operation was halted at 7pm following heavy rain in the landslide area and is scheduled to resume at 8am tomorrow.

Penang deputy Fire and Rescue director Mohamad Shoki Hamzah said the focus of tomorrow’s operation was to find one of the 13 containers which reportedly slid down in the landslip.

“Based on the statements of several victims, we believed the three of them were in a container which has yet to be found. The container is believed to be under 20 metres of earth... the contractor confirmed one more container has not been found,” he said.

He said the department was expecting difficulties to take out the container as it had fallen into a water retention site and there was no access to the location which forced the rescue team to build a path to the area.

"We need to use an excavator to take out the landslide earth before moving the container. We hope the SAR tomorrow will find the container,” he said.

– Bernama