Floods and landslides in and around the Indonesian capital of Jakarta killed at least 60 people while rescuers are endeavoring to retrieve people buried under soils, officials said on Sunday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
Torrential rains which triggered rivers to break their banks have resulted in natural disasters in Jakarta and nearby provinces of West Java and Banten.
Spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency Agus Wibowo said that the number of displaced persons has decreased but scores remains missing.
In Banten province's district of Lebak, two people were reported missing after flash floods struck the district, said Agus Wibowo.
In the meantime, Ramli Prasetyo, spokesman of the Jakarta Search and Rescue Office which is also responsible for the city's peripheral areas pointed out that the number of fatalities was likely to rise as rescuers along with soldiers, police personnel and villagers are searching for the missing persons believed to be buried under mud after the landslides in Cigudeg village, Bogor district, West Java province,
"Our personnel are now attempting to recover the victims under the soils. We got a report that four people are buried there," he told Xinhua by phone.
Poor access to the scene has hampered the efforts, making heavy machinery equipment fail to reach the landslide-impacted areas, so that rescuers are only using water pumps to remove the soils, he said.
President Joko Widodo has ordered disaster authorities to reopen access to the isolated six villages in West Java province's Sukajaya sub-district, a statement from the presidential office said on Sunday. Landslides have cut off roads heading to the areas.
Meanwhile, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency on Sunday refreshed its warning over the possibility of an extreme weather, it said in a text message.
The flooding hitting Jakarta and its surrounding areas during the New Year's Eve is the worst since 2007 which claimed 80 lives in 10 days.