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AFP/AP
Jakarta
Widespread flooding hit the Indonesian capital on Tuesday after hours of torrential rain, with thousands of homes inundated, cars stranded and at least one person killed.
More than 50 areas are flooded in Jakarta and nearby commuter towns after an overnight thunderstorm, with waters up to 1.5 metres high in East Jakarta.
The disaster mitigation agency said the city's drains couldn't accommodate the runoff and rivers also overflowed.
People were forced from their houses in some places, with authorities setting up evacuation centres. The disaster agency said it had received more than 400 reports of floods across Jakarta.
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, people wading through deluged streets and cars in water up to their headlights.
Drains were unable to cope with the torrents of water unleashed by the storm and rivers burst their banks, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
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.
The city, which has about 30 million people in its greater metropolitan area, says it has reduced the number of flood-prone areas since then by dredging rubbish-filled rivers and other measures.
Earlier this month, up to 40,000 people were caught in severe flooding following days of torrential rain in central Indonesia and 13 people were killed in landslides on the resort island of Bali.
