Rescue teams searched Sunday for more than 100 people listed missing after a dam burst on the outskirts of Jakarta as the death toll climbed to 91, officials said.
The National Disaster Coordinating Agency said up to 109 people were also injured after the Situ Gintung dam in the Tangerang district, just south of the capital, collapsed early Friday, unleashing a torrent of water that tore through a low-laying valley, inundating flimsy houses and surprising residents in their sleep with waves of mud and water, dpa reported.
The National Disaster Coordinating Agency spokesman Panji Sahrial Maulana said that as of Sunday morning, the death toll had risen to 91 with 102 others remained missing. He said the search and rescue operation would continue for a week.
Hundreds of soldiers, police and volunteers took part in the search involving mechanical excavators and bulldozers, Panji said. Rescue teams are still concentrating in two worst-hit residential areas.
More than 500 residents became homeless and were staying at temporary shelters erected at several locations around the disaster area.
Residents were accused authorities of ignoring warning signs and failing to repair damage to the dam, but officials at the government's different institutions are blamed each other for the deadly accident.
The dam was built in 1933 when Indonesia was under Dutch rule and its reservoir holds 2 million cubic metres of water.