KUCHING- Two geologists from the federal Public Works Department have flown to Miri to help assess if an area in Canada Hill that has seen two landslides in as many weeks is safe for residents to return to their homes.

 Nurul Eilmy Zainuddin an assistant director of the department at its head of fice in Kuala Lumpur,and Dr Che Hassanadi Abdullah, head of the research and development unit, arrived in the oil town on Friday night, hours after earth loosened by the monsoon rain cascaded down the hill to damage or destroy eight houses in the village of Kpg lereng Bukit at the foot.

 There were no deaths or injuries.

 The 87 villages whose homes were damaged or destroyed were relocated at the red Crescent head-quarters.

 However, the authorities have gone door-to-door warning the remaining 200 villages to leave their homes as there were signs indicating more landslides.

 Continuous rain had made Canada Hill, a ridge that runs the length of the city from Pujut to Tanjung Lobang, unstable. 

The city nestles between the hill and the sea. 

On Jan 16, two petrol station workers were buried alive in the first landslide reported there. Landslides are not uncommon in Canada Hill during the monsoon season. In 1981, four people were killed in a landslide.