Floods and landslides have killed up to 60 people and left almost 800 unaccounted for after days of heavy rains on a remote Indonesian island popular with foreign surfers, officials said yesterday.
Local officials have given differing estimates for the death toll on the Indian Ocean island of Nias, off the west coast of Sumatra, with figures ranging from 30 to 60 deaths.
Five villages on Nias were swept away in the predawn hours of Tuesday while most residents slept. Hundreds of homes were damaged.
There were no initial reports of foreigners being hurt. Officials from the embassies of Australia and Japan said they were not aware of any foreign casualties, but added they were monitoring the situation.
"According to data we received from the local government, 60 people were killed," said Mr Edy Sofyan, a provincial official in Sumatra.
However, Nias district head Mr Binahati Baeha said the death toll was lower. "Until now the death toll is at 30 and it is from three different villages," he said from Gunungsitoli.
Officials said they feared the 789 listed as missing had been swept away in the flooding or buried under landslides on the island, about 1,325 km northwest of Jakarta and home to 600,000 people. "Today, after a few hours, they haven't appeared, they [may be] either swept away by rivers or buried by landslides," Mr Sofyan said.
Rescue teams were searching Nias for the missing and evacuating hundreds of families but officials said bad weather had hampered the rescue efforts.
"Heavy rains and strong winds are going to sweep the island until mid-August," Mr Firman, a local weather office official, said.