Floods and landslides killed at least 60 people and left almost 800 unaccounted for after days of heavy rains on a remote Indonesian island popular with foreign surfers, officials said today.
Five villages on the Indian Ocean island of Nias off the west coast of Sumatra were swept away in the predawn hours of Tuesday while most residents were sleeping. Hundreds of homes were damaged.There were no initial reports of foreigners being involved.
"According to data we received from the local government, 60 people were killed," Mr Edy Sofyan, an official from North Sumatra province, said.
Officials said they feared the 789 listed as missing had been swept away in the flooding or buried under landslides on the island, about 1,325 kilometres northwest of Jakarta.
"Today, after a few hours, they haven't appeared, they (may be) either swept away by rivers or buried by landslides," Mr Sofyan said.
But in Indonesia, officials often regard people as missing if their villages cannot be contacted.
Rescue teams were searching Nias for the missing and evacuating hundreds of families but officials said bad weather had hampered the rescue efforts.