Indonesia searches for dozens still missing in deadly Sumatra floods

Indonesian rescuers have raced to find dozens of people still unaccounted for after heavy rains caused flash floods and washed volcanic debris into residential areas over the weekend, sweeping away houses and leaving 67 people dead.

Hours of torrential rain on Saturday caused mud and rocks to flow into districts near one of Indonesia's most active volcanos, destroying dozens of houses and damaging roads and mosques.

"Some of the missing ones have been found. According to the police identification, 67 people died," national disaster agency chief Suharyanto said Wednesday in a press conference, raising the death toll from 58.

He added that 20 people remained missing, with rescuers saying many of the retrieved bodies were found in or around rivers after being swept away by the deluge of volcanic material, mud and rain.

The national disaster and management agency BNPB will focus the search for the missing people in areas near rivers and clean the main roads from the large rocks, debris, mud brought by the floods, Suharyanto said in a statement.

Video shared by BNPB showed logs, rocks and mud strewn over roads in Tanah Datar district, with some collapsed bridges and houses.

Residents helped by local rescuers, police and military were cleaning houses and mosques from mud. In some settlements, excavators were deployed to remove large rocks and trees.

At least 249 houses, 225 hectares (556 acres) of land, including rice fields, 19 bridges and most of main roads were damaged in three districts and one town.

Indonesia's meteorology agency BMKG said it planned to try to mitigate heavy rainfall expected for the next week in West Sumatra by "cloud seeding" to prevent rains in the worst affected areas.

Widely used in Indonesia, cloud seeding involves shooting salt flares into clouds to trigger rainfall in dry areas.