INDONESIA:Landslides and floods caused by torrential rains have left up to 81 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Central Java province, police and rescue officials said yesterday.
A provincial official said the landslides were the worst to hit the region in quarter of a century, as thousands of people moved to shelters after their homes were buried or washed away.
Rescue workers and police were struggling to reach the affected areas as roads were cut off by floods and mud, said provincial police spokesman Syahroni.
By late afternoon, 36 bodies had been recovered while 30 others were still buried under thick mud in Karang Anyar district near the banks of the Bengawan Solo river, said Heru, head of the local disaster co-ordinator agency.
Another person was found dead and 14 were missing after landslides and floods in Central Java's Wonogiri and Sukoharjo districts, said Sarjono, a spokesman for the provincial government.
Landslides are frequent in Indonesia, where tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides and years of deforestation often means there is little vegetation to hold the soil.
But Heru said he did not believe deforestation had contributed to the latest landslides. "The forest in the area is thick," he said.
A lack of heavy equipment was slowing rescue efforts, officials said. "It is difficult for any help to reach the area, so the local teams are left on their own," said Julianto, another official with the provincial government.
"The landslides took us by surprise. This is the first time in the last 25 years anything of this scale occurred here in Central Java."
Thousands of villagers in areas who lost their homes to floods or landslides have moved into temporary shelters in buildings and tents set up by emergency response teams, Julianto said.
Metro TV showed footage of ruined houses and residents wading through neck-high water.
Hundreds of soldiers, police and volunteers were digging for survivors by hand and trying to get heavy-lifting equipment to affected villages on the main island of Java, said search and rescue chief Eko Prayitno.
Sixty-one people were buried in Karanganyar district, a rescue official said, and 17 others were feared dead in nearby Wonogiri district.
Floods have inundated thousands of houses elsewhere in the country.
In the most deadly incident, a landslide tumbled onto villagers celebrating after clearing mud from a home in Karanganyar district.
"They were having dinner together when they were hit by another landslide," Mr Prayitno said. "At least 61 people were buried."
Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused widespread flooding across Indonesia - the world's fourth most populous nation - where millions of people live in mountainous regions and flood plains close to rivers.
Floods were reported in numerous locations elsewhere on Java, as well as on Sumatra and Sulawesi islands.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have blamed lax supervision over construction and engineering for a landslide near the massive Three Gorges Dam last month that killed 35, state media reported. -