Indonesia floods: Nearly thousand dead on Sumatra as rescue efforts continue

Flooding and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have killed up to 961 people and injured about 5,000 others, the country’s national disaster agency, BNPB, said on 8 December.

According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, 293 people are currently listed as missing.

Rescue operations in the affected regions are still underway, and the scale of the disaster is such that even elephants have been used to help clear heavy debris.

The disaster has affected three provinces on Sumatra, destroying large numbers of homes, roads and public infrastructure.

Across the wider region, more than 1,800 people have been killed in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, following a series of tropical storms and intense monsoon rains that triggered landslides and flash floods.

According to BNPB head Suharyanto, rebuilding infrastructure in the three worst-hit Sumatran provinces could cost up to 3.1 billion US dollars.

By Aghakazim Guliyev