Landslides, Floods Kill 27 in Indonesia
Date: 21-Jun-06
Country: INDONESIA
Two days of rain caused the problems in several areas in South Sulawesi province. Sinjai regency was the worst-hit area after major flooding early on Tuesday, rescuers and police said.
"Victims from flooding and landslides in Sinjai regency are 21 people killed, 10 injured, 15 missing," a South Sulawesi police official said.
Six people were killed and eight were missing in other areas of the province, he told Reuters by phone from the provincial capital of Makassar, some 1,400 km (870 miles) east of Jakarta.
Torrential rains are a regular feature of tropical Indonesia, with deadly landslides a frequent occurrence. Rampant deforestation often adds to the ease with which hillsides are saturated and collapse, environmentalists say.
