Floods leave more than 40 dead in Indonesia

(AFP/VOZ MEDIA) At least 41 people died this weekend in western Indonesia due to flooding and cold lava that surged down from a volcano, a local disaster management agency announced Monday.

The heavy rains that lasted several hours in two districts of the island of Sumatra sent large volcanic boulders tumbling down the side of Marapi, one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, Saturday, as water flooded roads and homes.

"Data as of last night, we recorded 37 dead victims... But from this morning it has grown again, the figure reached 41," Ilham Wahab of West Sumatra's disaster management agency told AFP. Some local media have raised the death toll to at least 43.

Rescuers are also searching for 17 missing people, three in the Agam district and 14 in the Tanah Datar district, the two areas most affected by the floods and home to hundreds of thousands of people.

According to Abdul Malik, head of the search and rescue agency in Pandang, the provincial capital, the bodies recovered include two children, one aged three and one aged eight.

West Sumatra Governor Mahyeldi Ansharullah said Monday that some 130 people have been evacuated to an elementary school in Agam, while more than 2,000 were evacuated to various locations in Tanah Datar.

Roads in both districts became rivers, with mosques and houses damaged. Heavy rains flooded entire neighborhoods and washed vehicles into a nearby river, while volcanic ash and large boulders fell from the Marapi. Cold lava, also known as lahar, is made up of volcanic material such as ash, sand and pebbles washed away by rain.

In 2022, about 24,000 people were evacuated and two children died in floods on the island of Sumatra. The last major eruption of Marapi took place in December and spewed ash some 3,000 meters into the sky. At least 24 climbers, mostly university students, died in the eruption.