Flash floods and a landslide on Indonesia’s Sumatra island have left at least 21 people dead and seven others missing, officials have said on Sunday.
Mud, rocks and uprooted trees rushed down a mountainside and engulfed villages in the Pesisir Selatan district of West Sumatra province late following torrential rains, Doni Yusrizal, who heads the local disaster management agency, said on Sunday.
Yusrizal said rescuers recovered seven bodies in the village of Koto XI Tarusan and three others in two neighbouring villages.
“Relief efforts for the dead and missing were hampered by power outages, blocked roads covered in thick mud and debris,” Yusrizal said.
The death toll from flash flooding and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has risen to 21, an official said Sunday, with six people still missing.
Torrential rains on Thursday triggered the disaster in Pesisir Selatan regency in the West Sumatra province, with more than 75,000 people forced to evacuate.
"As of Sunday, 21 people were found dead and six people remained missing," Fajar Sukma, an official from West Sumatra disaster mitigation agency, told AFP by phone on Sunday.
A village located on a hillside in the Sutera subdistrict was struck hard, with around 200 families in the area left isolated after a landslide followed by flash flooding, Fajar said.
A local official earlier put the death toll at 19 with seven missing.but now toll rose to 21.
Rescuers were searching for the missing on Sunday as authorities focused their operation on three areas affected by the disasters, local search and rescue official Abdul Malik said.
"Today’s search involves around 150 people from disaster organisations in West Sumatra," Abdul said in a statement.
Doni Gusrizal, a senior official from the Pesisir Selatan disaster mitigation agency, said waters had started to recede after the flooding, but added that access to areas affected by the landslide remained difficult because of hilly terrain.
In the Padang Pariaman regency, also in West Sumatra, heavy downpours earlier this week caused rivers to overflow and triggered floods and a landslide, killing at least three people, according to a statement from the local disaster agency.
Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season and the problem has been aggravated in some places by deforestation, with prolonged torrential rain causing flooding in some areas of the archipelago nation.
A landslide and floods swept away dozens of houses and destroyed a hotel near Lake Toba on Sumatra in December, killing at least two people.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said six bodies were found in Pesisir Selatan and three bodies were found in the neighbouring district of Padang Pariaman, bringing the death toll so far to 21.
The agency said at least two villagers were injured and seven others were still missing, with more than 80,000 people fleeing to temporary government shelters.
Flash floods and landslides are a common occurrence in Indonesia, where millions of people live near floodplains, especially during the rainy season.
In December, at least two people were killed when a landslide and floods swept away dozens of houses and destroyed a hotel near Lake Toba on Sumatra.
