A dam on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, burst early on Friday, killing 50 people and flooding hundreds of houses nearby, officials said.
Rustam Pakaya, a health ministry official, said 50 bodies had been recovered so far and hundreds of houses were under two metres of floodwater.
”Hundreds of houses are flooded, tens of houses damaged, it was like a small tsunami,” he said.
Police said they were still searching the area for more casualties. Metro TV showed rescuers wading up to their chests in floodwater as they put the injured on stretchers.
The dam, which was used to retain water in Lake Situ Gintung in Tangerang District, 20km south-west of central Jakarta, broke early on Friday morning following torrential rain.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a trip to Bandung, West Java, where he was campaigning ahead of April 9 parliamentary elections, to visit the disaster scene.
Vice-President Jusuf Kalla went to the area earlier on Friday and promised the government would repair the dam immediately and provide help with rebuilding homes. – Reuters