At least 50 people were killed in flash floods that submerged Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua, authorities said on Sunday.
The town of Sentani near the provincial capital Jayapura was hit by flash floods triggered by torrential rain on Saturday, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.
The death toll was expected to rise as emergency services battled to reach people in hard-hit areas, with more than 70 people injured and 15 missing.
A search operation was still under way, Nugroho said.
At least nine houses, two bridges and a Twin Otter plane parked at the region’s main airport were damaged by the floods. But the Sentani airport, the province’s main transport hub, remains open, Nugroho said.
Disaster authorities have warned local governments of flash flood risks due to deforestation in the mountains surrounding the town, he said.
“We’ve told local authorities to be careful of floods or flash floods considering forest destruction that has been happening in the Cyclops mountains,” Nugroho told Kompas TV.
TV footage showed waters have receded, leaving mud, logs and debris on Sentani’s main roads.
More than 120 residents were taking shelter at government offices after their homes were hit by the floods, the disaster agency said earlier.
Authorities, aided by the Red Cross and volunteers, were helping the displaced.
In Doyo, one of the most affected areas, a housing complex was littered with huge rocks believed to have rolled down from a nearby mountain, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Sediment and waste swept by the floods piled up on the pavement.
The non-stop wail of ambulance sirens could be heard, as heavy equipment was used to clear the roads.
At least 2,200 people have been affected by the disaster and the local government has announced a 14-day state of emergency, said Jayapura police chief Victor Dean Mackbon.
"The rain started last night and went on until around 1:00 am this morning," said Lilis Puji Hastuti, a 29-year-old mother of two young children in Sentani.
"Our house was flooded with thick mud ... we immediately grabbed our valuables and ran to a neighbor's (two-storey) house to seek refuge.
"It's hard to get out of the area because many roads are blocked... I'm worried, sad and scared all at once," she told AFP.
Papua shares a border with independent Papua New Guinea on an island just north of Australia.
Flooding is common in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season which runs from October to April.
In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.
The Southeast Asian archipelago of some 17,000 islands is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
