Indonesian rescuers race to find flash flood, landslide victims

Rescue efforts are underway in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province following devastating flash floods and landslides that have claimed at least 27 lives, officials said on Thursday.

Torrential rains, ongoing since last week, have triggered natural disasters across four districts in the region.

A landslide struck a village in Deli Serdang on Wednesday, killing seven people and injuring 20 more, according to Hadi Wahyudi, a spokesperson for the North Sumatra police.

Among the missing are passengers reportedly trapped in a mud-buried minibus and other vehicles along an interprovince road. Rescuers have yet to determine the exact number of those affected, Wahyudi noted.

Elsewhere, search teams have recovered 20 bodies since the weekend and are still looking for two missing people. “Today, we’re focusing our search to find missing people and clearing the roads affected by the landslides,” Wahyudi said, noting that excavators have been deployed to assist in recovery operations.

The floods and landslides have caused widespread destruction, damaging homes, mosques, and rice fields. Heavy rains also inundated Medan, the provincial capital, disrupting regional elections by delaying voting at some polling stations.

Indonesia’s weather agency has warned of continued extreme weather conditions as the La Niña phenomenon intensifies rainfall across the tropical archipelago, raising concerns of further disasters as 2024 nears its end.