JAKARTA (AFP) – Flash floods and landslides struck Indonesia’s main Java island earlier this week, killing at least five people, the national disaster agency said, as rescuers race to find seven others still missing.
Intense rains triggered flash floods and landslides in the Sukabumi district in West Java province on Tuesday, destroying at least 10 bridges and damaging hundreds of houses.
“As of Friday at 9am, it was reported that the number of fatalities had increased to five people in total,” the spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Abdul Muhari said in a statement.
“Aside from that, seven people remained missing.”
He added that efforts to build a temporary bridge to open access to affected areas are ongoing. BNPB chief Suharyanto – who goes by one name – instructed rescuers to optimise the search operation for those missing, noting that rescuers have a seven-day “golden time” to find them. “If necessary to use heavy equipment, please do so,” urged Suharyanto in a statement.
Indonesia has suffered from a string of recent extreme weather events, which experts say are made more likely by climate change.
Last month, heavy downpour triggered landslides and flash floods in Sumatra island, killing at least 27 people.
In May, at least 67 people died after a mixture of ash, sand and pebbles carried down from the eruption of Mount Marapi in West Sumatra washed into residential areas, causing flash floods.
