77 killed, 43 missing during flash floods in Papua

Flash floods in Papua killed 77 people and injured another 74. The casualties are likely to increase as many of the affected areas have not been reached and rescuers are still in search of the 43 people reported missing.

Jakarta: 77 people have died and 43 are missing in flash floods in Indonesia's eastern province of Papua. Days of torrential downpours, flash floods and mudslides tore through mountainside villages causing devastations in their wake.

At least three people were killed and hundreds of house were damaged after an earthquake triggered a landslide that hit a waterfall on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a news conference on Monday that Sentani subdistrict was the worst hit, where mud, rocks and trees from a landslide in Cyclops Mountain rolled down to a river that burst its banks, sweeping away residents in a fast-moving deluge of water.

Nugroho said that bad ecosystem in the mountains due to deforestation, plantation and mining was made worse by an extreme volume of nonstop rainfall.

He said 77 bodies have been pulled from the mud and wreckage of houses by Sunday and another 74 people were hospitalised, many with broken bones and head injuries.

The casualties are likely to increase as many of the affected areas have not been reached and rescuers are still in search of the 43 people reported missing.