Death toll rises to 41 in floods and landslides in Indonesia

International Desk: 41 people have died so far in western Indonesia due to cold lava and flash floods from a volcano. Besides, 17 more people are missing. An official of the local disaster agency told the news agency AFP on Monday.

Heavy rains that continued for several hours have created a flash flood situation. Roads, houses, mosques have been flooded due to floods. West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency official Ilham Wahab told AFP, "We have confirmed 37 deaths as of last night." However, this number has increased to 41 people till this morning.

Rescuers said 17 people are still missing. Their rescue is underway. Among the missing are three in Agam district and 14 in Tanah Datar. Hundreds of thousands of people live in these two areas, the most affected by floods. Ilham Wahab could not give the exact information about how many people have been evacuated so far.

He said, at the moment we are giving more importance to search, rescue, protection of evacuees and search operations. Roads turned into rivers due to floods. Mosques and houses were damaged in several areas. Cooled volcanic lava is also known as lahar. Major volcanic materials such as ash, sand and gravel are rained down the slopes of the volcano.

Then the situation got worse. Earlier this month, floods and landslides in central Indonesia killed at least 15 people. At that time many houses were damaged and roads were washed away due to natural calamities. Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season. Deforestation in some areas is worsening the situation.

Due to prolonged torrential rains, flash flooding has occurred in some areas. In 2022, floods on the island of Sumatra displaced about 24,000 people. Two children were reported dead at that time.