TENS OF PEOPLE MISSING, 12 KILLED AFTER DAM BURSTS IN JAKARTA

Jakarta, March 27 (ANTARA) - Twelve people were killed and tens others were missing after Situ Gunting dam burst and swept settlement areas at Cirendeu, Ciputat, South Jakarta, here in the wee hours of Friday.

The 12 fatal victims included two children, according to information collected by ANTARA here on Friday.
The dam burst and waters from which flooded settlement areas at Cirendeu, sweeping away tens of houses and a number of people at around 2 am local time, Friday.
Among the victims were students of the University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta (UMJ) who lived near the campus area.
Search and rescue officers were trying to rescue residents being trapped in their submerged houses. The survivors were evacuated to higher grounds near the UMJ campus.
The floodwaters still reached a height of one to two meters on late Friday morning.
Some survivors said that the disaster reminded them of a deadly tsunami which devastated Aceh Province and Nias Island on December 26, 2004.
They said that they had heard loud noises as if it were a powerful earthquake. They later found out that the noises came from floodwaters coming from the burst Dam.