Updated on
Summary At least four people were killed and ten went missing as floods hit eastern Indonesia.
Floods carrying volcanic debris swept through a town in eastern Indonesia on Wednesday killing four people, including a nine-year-old child, and leaving 10 others missing, a government official said.A further 15 people were injured after floodwaters rampaged through 11 villages in Ternate City in North Maluku province, national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.Two bridges and 15 homes were completely destroyed by the floods, while 173 other homes were damaged, Nugroho said.The floods carried volcanic mud from Mount Gamalama, which forms the entire island of Ternate in the Maluku chain, which erupted and spewed a column of ash 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) into the air in December.Two rivers on the eastern side of the volcano overflowed after Wednesdays heavy rains carried volcanic debris down to the affected residential areas, Nugroho said.The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes. The countrys most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010.
