Jakarta floods forces tens of thousands out of their homes

2013-01-18 1,226

One of Jakarta's main throughfares - now a river of red mud.

Unusually heavy monsoon rains have submerged parts of the Indonesian capital in waist-deep water.

The flooding has made around 20,000 people homeless, and killed at least 11.

A spokesman from Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency says the flood waters covered over 40 kilometres of the city of 12.5 million people.

Soldiers using an excavator struggled to stem a rush of water after a large section of a canal burst, sending a torrent of dirty water into the heart of the capital.

Though flooding eased on Friday, authorities are warning of more rain to come.

Many parts of Indonesia are regularly inundated during the annual rainy season, challenging an already strained transport system.

But the flooding is the worst the capital has seen in six years