More than 400 people have died and hundreds injured after devastating floods caused by cyclonic rains hit Indonesia earlier last week
Rescue workers are racing to reach some areas of the hardest hit island of Sumatra, where thousands have been cut off and left without critical supplies
An exceptionally rare tropical storm, named Cyclone Senyar, caused catastrophic landslides and flooding in Indonesia, with homes swept away and thousands of buildings submerged
Torrential rain and storms have devastated parts of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, affecting millions of people and leaving more than 900 dead across Asia this month. More than 500 people have also been injured, the BNPB said.
“The death toll is believed to be increasing, since many bodies are still missing, while many have not been reached,” said Suharyanto, head of the BNPB, who, like many Indonesians, only uses one name.
Updating an initial death toll of 23 for the whole province of Sumatra, West Sumatra Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Ilham Wahab said late on Friday that 61 people had died and 90 were missing.
“A total of 75,219 people have been displaced, and a total of 106,806 people have been affected throughout West Sumatra,” Ilham said.
A further 116 people were later confirmed killed in North Sumatra, while in Aceh province the death toll had reached at least 35 people, according to figures released by authorities.
Swaths of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been inundated with days of torrential rain – killing about 400 people across the three countries in total – after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
