JAKARTA: Rescue workers in western Indonesia used heavy equipment on Tuesday to dig out from weekend flooding and landslides that have killed at least 20 people, the national disaster agency said.
In North Sumatra, the bodies of five people listed as missing had been pulled from under a mountain of mud and debris, agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a statement.
“All victims have been found dead,” he said Tuesday, adding that 10 people in all had been killed in a Karo district landslide.
Beginning Saturday, heavy rain pounded four districts across northern Sumatra, producing the deadly floods and landslides.
Juspri Nadeak, disaster chief in hardest-hit Karo district, said the discovery of victims not yet reported missing to authorities remained a possibility.
“The landslide area provides access to hot springs, so there’s a possibility that tourists were hit by it,” he told AFP Tuesday.
“We are still cleaning up the mud and debris from the landslide while anticipating the possibility of discovering more victims.”
In a village in Deli Serdang district, where four people have been found dead and two more were missing, piles of mud, logs and rocks were scattered around the village where a rescue operation was underway.
“The electricity was cut off and there is no cellphone reception, making it difficult for us rescuers to communicate,” Iman Sitorus, a local search and rescue agency spokesman, told AFP.
Authorities also have deployed heavy equipment to clean up the debris, he said.
Indonesia has suffered a string of recent extreme weather events, which experts say are made more likely by climate change.
In May, at least 67 people died after a mixture of ash, sand and pebbles carried down from the eruption of Mount Marapi in West Sumatra washed into residential areas, causing flash floods.
The disaster agency on Monday revised downward its tally to 15 dead and seven missing following an earlier report that listed one more killed.
The death toll climbed to 20 on Tuesday following the discovery of the five bodies in Karo district.
The rest of the victims were found in South Tapanuli, Padang Lawas and Deli Serdang districts.

NEW YORK: President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China as soon as he takes office as part of his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs.
The tariffs, if implemented, could dramatically raise prices on everything from gas to automobiles. The US is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent Census data.
Trump made the threats in a pair of posts on his Truth Social site Monday evening in which he railed against an influx of illegal migrants, even though southern border crossings have been hovering at a four-year low.
“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25 percent Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” he wrote, complaining that “thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” even though violent crime is down from pandemic highs.
He said the new tariffs would remain in place “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! ”
Trump also turned his ire to China, saying he has “had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail.”
“Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10 percent Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” he wrote.
It is unclear whether Trump will actually go through with the threats or if he is using them as a negotiating tactic before he takes office in the new year.
Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico have been falling and remained around four-year lows in October, according to the most recent US numbers
The Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests in October, less than one third of the tally from last October.
Much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico. Border seizures of the drug rose sharply under President Joe Biden, and US officials tallied about 21,900 pounds (12,247 kilograms) of fentanyl seized in the 2024 government budget year, compared with 2,545 pounds (1,154 kilograms) in 2019, when Trump was president.
Trump’s nominee for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, if confirmed, would be one of several officials responsible for imposing tariffs on other nations. He has on several occasions said tariffs are a means of negotiation with other countries.
He wrote in a Fox News op-ed last week, before his nomination, that tariffs are “a useful tool for achieving the president’s foreign policy objectives. Whether it is getting allies to spend more on their own defense, opening foreign markets to US exports, securing cooperation on ending illegal immigration and interdicting fentanyl trafficking, or deterring military aggression, tariffs can play a central role.”
If Trump were to move forward with the threatened tariffs, the new taxes would pose an enormous challenge for the economies of Canada and Mexico, in particular.
They would also throw into doubt the reliability of the 2020 trade deal brokered in large part by Trump, which is up for review in 2026.
Spokespeople for Canada’s ambassador to Washington and its deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, who chairs a special Cabinet committee on Canada-US relations to address concerns about another Trump presidency, did not immediately provide comment.
Trump’s promise to launch a mass deportation effort is a top focus for the Cabinet committee, Freeland has said.
A senior Canadian official had said before Trump’s posts that Canadian officials are expecting Trump to issue executive orders on trade and the border as soon as he assumes office. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department and Economy Department also had no immediate reaction to Trump’s statements. Normally such weighty issues are handled by the president at her morning press briefings.