A fatal landslide in popular holiday destination Bali has left two tourists dead including one Australian woman, an Indonesian official has reported.
The 47-year-old Australian-born woman who is a permanent resident in the United States, was killed while sleeping in accommodation on Thursday morning.
Her body was found with a male tourist who is yet to be identified.
They were staying in a wooden villa in Jatiluwih, Tabanan, an area known as the rice bowl of Bali for its picturesque rice paddies, small villages and hot springs.
Local disaster mitigation agency official I Nyoman Srinadha Giri told AFP there was heavy rainfall the night before.
This led to a landslide the next morning which caused the villa the two victims were resting in to be swept away.
He said the rain was intense and water canals sitting above the villa for irrigation had been eroded.
“The victims were evacuated from the debris while in sleeping [positions]. There were two victims, a man and a woman, in one bed,” he said.
The bodies of the two tourists have been moved to a hospital in Bali’s capital city of Denpasar.
Large parts of Indonesia’s archipelago of over 17,000 islands become vulnerable to flooding and landslides during the rainy season from October to March when monsoonal weather can hit.
These have worsened in some areas because of deforestation where ongoing torrential rain causes more flooding.
The tragedy on Thursday has come as Indonesia continues its rescue and recovery efforts in Sumatra, an Indonesian island neighbouring Bali.
One week prior, the region’s western province was hit by intense rainfall over two days which resulted in flash flooding and landslides across six districts.
At least 26 people were killed as more than 37,000 homes and buildings became submerged under water.
Local authorities and rescue crews have been searching for close to a dozen people still missing.
A spokesperson for Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said relief efforts were hampered by power outages, damaged bridges, blocked roads and extreme weather.
Abdul Muhari said 14 homes were buried under landslides with at least three swept away.
Floods also caused damage to 25 schools, 45 mosques and two irrigation system units which resulted in a large area of rice fields and plantation to go underwater.
The recent landslides and floods have displaced more than 74,000 people, the agency reported on Monday.
Authorities expect the death toll to rise as rescuers work through showers and isolated storms to retrieve the missing.