Flood-affected residents use a rubber boat in an inundated neighbourhood in Jakarta on February 21, 2017. Jakarta was hit by widespread flooding on February 21 after hours of torrential rain, with thousands of homes inundated, cars stranded and people for
Jakarta: Widespread flooding hit the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Tuesday after hours of torrential rain, with thousands of homes inundated and at least one person killed.
Water up to 1.5 metres deep deluged parts of the Indonesian capital after a major thunderstorm overnight, with the disaster agency receiving more than 400 reports of flooding across the city.
In Bekasi, a city within the Jakarta metropolitan area, one person drowned while about 280 others were forced to evacuate, the agency said.
Images of the flooding showed major roads inundated in parts of the megacity of 10 million, people wading through deluged streets and cars in water up to their headlights.
Jakarta is hit by flooding to some degree every year during tropical Indonesia's months-long rainy season, with the city's numerous riverside communities worst affected.
The city suffered one of its worst seasonal inundations in recent history in January 2013. The flooding submerged a major downtown roundabout, forced 30,000 people from their homes and left 20 dead.
