An Indonesian girl has died of bird flu and Vietnam reported on Wednesday its first suspected human infection since late 2005, in a string of cases across Asia when the H5N1 virus is usually less active. The girl’s death brings the number of confirmed human fatalities in Indonesia to 77, the highest in the world.

Residents of the Indonesian capital began returning to their homes on Wednesday as flood waters receded, but they faced a huge task clearing up streets and homes caked in stinking rubbish and mud. The death toll from the floods, the worst for at least five years, rose to 50 people, a health ministry official said.

Indonesia’s capital faced more misery on Monday from floods that officials estimate have killed at least 20 people and displaced 340 000, as swollen rivers and canals spilled muddy water onto the city streets. The flooding in parts of the tropical city of nine million people has been up to four metres deep, causing blackouts, cutting telephone lines and blocking key roads.

Torrential rain triggered floods in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Friday, blocking roads and trapping residents in their homes as torrents of muddy water reached a depth of 2m, police and witnesses said. Floods during the rainy season in Indonesia are common, but the heavy rains this week have caused chaos on roads and shut some train lines around Jakarta, police said.