Jakarta: At least 50 people have been killed in flash floods in Indonesia’s eastern Papua province which were triggered by incessant rains, officials confirmed on Sunday. The rescue operation is in flow to find as many survivors as possible.
The floods in Sentani, near the provincial capital of Jayapura, were triggered by torrential rain on Saturday, and also left 21 people injured.
Dozens of homes were damaged by floodwaters, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
“The number of casualties and impact of the disaster will likely increase as search and rescue teams are still trying to reach other affected areas,” he added.
The floods have receded, but officials are still trying to evacuate people stuck in Papua flash floods.
Uprooted trees and other debris were strewn across muddy roads, while at Jayapura’s small airport a propeller plane lay partly crushed on a runway.
Flooding is not uncommon in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season which runs from October to April.
In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.
The Southeast Asian archipelago of some 17,000 islands is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.
In December, the western part of Java Island was slammed by a deadly volcano-triggered tsunami that killed about 400 people.
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Ms Kalinga