Death Toll in Jakarta floods, landslides reaches 43

TIL Desk/World/Jakarta/ The death toll due to the floods and landslides in the Jakarta metropolitan area has increased to 43, Indonesian authorities said on Friday, adding that many areas in the capital remain inundated. The Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNBP) reported 17 deaths in Bogor, a satellite city of Jakarta.

According to the BNPB, the rest of the fatalities were registered in Lebak, Bekasi and Tangerang, all satellite cities of the Jakarta metropolitan area, where about 30 million people reside. Most of the victims died as they were swept away by floodwaters or buried in landslides while others died from electrocution and hypothermia, the government agency added.

The agency said that 182 sites were still flooded, 63 of them in Jakarta, and that many of these areas are still inundated with between 30 and 150 cm of water. Images posted by BNPB on its social networks showed emergency personnel rescuing residents with the use of lifeguard equipment and pushing small boats through chest-deep water. President Joko Widodo on Thursday said that priority had to be given to those trapped by the floodwaters.