The dam burst in Ciputat, South Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta early Friday morning has caused at least 31 people dead and tens of local residents missing, Xinhua reported.
According to the leading website Detik.com, the death toll has reached 31, including 10 victim bodies identified.
The Jakarta Post quoted Indonesian Health Ministry Crisis Center Chief Rustam Pakaya as saying that a flash flooded into around 400 homes in the industrial area of Tangerang at about 2:00 a.m. (1900 GMT Thursday), with water depth of up to 2.5 meters.
Pakaya said that the rescue teams had found 20 bodies, but the death toll is expected to keep growing because residents were sleeping when the disaster happened.
He added that the missing resident number was at least a dozen, while, according to the national Antara news agency, there were tens still missing.
It was unclear what caused the failure of the 10-meter-high dam, which was holding back around 2 million cubic meters of water at the Pesanggrahan river, according to South Jakarta Police chief Makmur Simbolon.
But local Police chief Ngisah Ashari attributed the dam collapse to overflowing water after a heavy rain fall on Thursday evening.