Landslides' missing hundreds found alive
Hundreds of people reported missing after floods and landslides killed at least 35 on a remote Indonesian island have turned up safe.
However, the whereabouts of about 200 villagers in the mountainous interior of Nias Island, off the west coast of Sumatra, were still unknown.
Rescuers made contact with more than 600 people who had been unaccounted for since floods triggered by days of heavy rain hit the island on Tuesday.
Most of the survivors had moved to higher ground to escape rising waters.
Initially, local officials had reported that 64 people had died. However, they scaled the figure back after they received more reliable information from the disaster sites.
Hundreds of foreign tourists, mostly surfers, visit Nias every year because of its large waves and pristine beaches.
Tourists at one of its most popular surfing spots, Teluk Lagundri, said they were safe and were planning to leave.
In Bangladesh, thousands fled their inundated homes after floods caused by heavy monsoon rains swamped villages and affected nearly 200,000 people.
At least 15,000 villagers, displaced by the floods, have taken shelter atop raised ground or mud embankments in the worst-hit Sylhet and Sunamganj districts.
Dhaka’s Flood Warning Centre said 200,000 people were stranded in more than 200 villages in the northern districts.
Almost four inches of rain fell on the region during a 12 hour period. The rains, along with flood waters coming from the neighbouring Indian state of Assam, have made the Bangladesh rivers overflow.
