At least three people died in Indonesia Thursday after a flood in capital Jakarta surged into a school and caused a wall to collapse, a police official told local media.
The Greater Jakarta metropolitan region houses around 30 million people and is regularly hit by floods in the rainy season.
“According to the information we received, 3 people died,” Multazam Lisendra, police chief of Cilandak district in south Jakarta, told broadcaster Kompas TV.
“For the cause, it needs to be investigated further, but the initial assumption is that there is so much pressure from the overflowing river that pushed and knocked down the school’s wall. The water overflowed into the school,” he said.
Local media reported the three dead were students at the MTSN 19 school in South Jakarta. The police official did not confirm the identity of the victims.
Footage on social media showed some teenage students crying in panic while trying to evacuate from the school, submerged in waist-deep waters.
Five people were killed in floods across the city last February that submerged entire neighbourhoods and sent thousands into shelters.
In 2020, Jakarta saw some of its deadliest floods in years after downpours that also triggered landslides.
At least 67 people in the capital and nearby cities were killed in that disaster, with the floodwaters reaching the second floor of some buildings after rivers burst their banks.a
