Rescue workers in western Indonesia have recovered at least 27 bodies from under tons of mud and rocks or that were swept away in flash floods that hit mountainside villages on Sumatra Island, officials said.
Torrential rain in the province since last week had caused flash floods and landslides in four different districts on Monday, the national disaster agency said.
Mud, rocks and trees tumbled down a mountain after the rains, tearing through four hilly districts in North Sumatra province, washing away houses and destroying farms.
Police, soldiers and rescue workers used excavators, farm equipment and their bare hands to sift through the rubble looking for the dead and missing on Tuesday and that search is ongoing.
Juspri Nadeak, disaster chief in hardest-hit Karo district, said the discovery of victims not yet reported missing to authorities remained a possibility.
"The landslide area provides access to hot springs, so there's a possibility that tourists were hit by it," he told AFP Tuesday.
"We are still cleaning up the mud and debris from the landslide while anticipating the possibility of discovering more victims."
A landslide in a village in Deli Serdang on Wednesday killed seven and injured 20, Hadi Wahyudi, North Sumatra police spokesperson told Reuters.
Rescuers were looking for missing people, including those trapped in a minibus and other vehicles on a hilly inter-province road hit by a mudslide, he said, adding he could not give an estimate for the number of affected people.
In other places, rescuers have found 20 dead during a search that started over the weekend. They are still searching for two missing.
"Today, we're focusing our search to find missing people and clearing the roads affected by the landslides," said Hadi Wahyudi, adding excavators were deployed.
The landslides and flash floods here damaged houses, mosques, and rice fields.
Heavy rains also triggered floods in the provincial capital of Medan, forcing a delay in votes for a regional election in some polling stations.
Extreme weather is expected in Indonesia towards the end of 2024, as the La Niña phenomenon increases rainfalls across the tropical archipelago, the country's weather agency has warned.
Indonesia has suffered a string of recent extreme weather events, which experts say are made more likely by climate change.
In May, at least 67 people died after a mixture of ash, sand and pebbles carried down from the eruption of Mount Marapi in West Sumatra washed into residential areas, causing flash floods.
