Indonesia’s capital braced for floods Monday as torrential rain triggered landslides in neighboring West Java, killing at least two people.
The police chief in West Java’s Bogor district, Andi M. Dicky Pastika, said rescuers have found two bodies.
Hundreds of people including police, soldiers and residents were digging through the debris with their hands, shovels and hoes for four people who were still missing, he said. Tractors and bulldozers were arriving in the worst-affected area of Riung Gunung village to help with the rescue effort.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said landslides in four areas along the hilly resort town of Puncak have blocked the main road connecting the area to Jakarta.
He said Jakarta, with more than 30 million people in its greater metropolitan area, has raised its flood alert to the highest level.
Flooding was already occurring in the east of the city in areas close to the Ciliwung River.
Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.
