Jakarta, Indonesia:

The search for 35 people who are still missing from flash floods and mudslides in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province continued on Wednesday, authorities said, as the casualties from the weekend disaster rose to 58.

Heavy rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow – a mud-like mixture of volcanic ash, rock debris and water – in three districts and one town in West Sumatra province. By Tuesday, the casualties were at 52.

The cold lava flow, known by the Indonesian word lahar, came from Mount Marapi, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes. More than 20 people were killed when Marapi erupted in December. A series of eruptions have followed since.

The national disaster and management agency BNPB will focus the search for the missing people in areas near rivers and clean the main roads from the large rocks, debris, and mud brought by the floods, its head Suharyanto said in a statement on Wednesday.

Video shared by BNPB showed logs, rocks and mud strewn over roads in Tanah Datar district, with some collapsed bridges and houses.

Residents helped by local rescuers, police and military were cleaning houses and mosques from mud. In some settlements, excavators were deployed to remove large rocks and trees.

At least 249 houses, 225 hectares (556 acres) of land, including rice fields, 19 bridges and most of the main roads were damaged in three districts and one town.

Indonesia’s meteorology agency BMKG said it planned to try to mitigate heavy rainfall expected for the next week in West Sumatra by “cloud seeding” to prevent rains in the worst affected areas.

Widely used in Indonesia, cloud seeding involves shooting salt flares into clouds to trigger rainfall in dry areas.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Rescuers put the body of a victim of a flash flood on a gurney at a local community health center in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia, on May 12, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Heavy rain brought floods and landslides to Indonesia’s province of West Sumatra, killing at least 28, with four still missing, authorities said on May 12.

“There are 28 people killed, and we are still searching for four others who are missing,” Abdul Malik, the chief of the provincial rescue team, told Reuters.

The national disaster management agency BNPB said in a statement that flooding since Saturday night had brought mud to the Tanah Datar regency, affecting five sub-districts.

BNPB said its latest assessment showed 84 housing units and 16 bridges were affected by the disaster, adding that heavy equipment had been deployed to speed up the clearing of road access.