The school was swept away by the Indonesian floods, killing 11 children

Torrential rains have triggered flash floods and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing at least 22 people, mostly children in a school, and leaving 15 others missing, officials say.

A flash flood of mud and debris from landslides hit Mandailing Natal district in North Sumatra province and destroyed an Islamic school in the village of Muara Saladi, where 21 children were taken Friday afternoon, the official said. Chief of the local police, Irsan Sinuhaji.

He said rescuers recovered the bodies of 11 children from mud and debris hours later.

The torrential rains caused flash floods and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

AP Photo / Khairul Bazar

The spokesman for the National Agency for Disaster Mitigation, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said rescuers were looking for 10 other children who are still missing.

A video obtained by The Associated Press showed relatives crying with their loved ones in a health clinic where the bodies of the children lay, covered with blankets.

Nugroho said two bodies were found early Saturday morning in a car washed away by flooding in Mandailing Natal, where 17 houses collapsed and five were swept away. Hundreds of other houses were flooded up to two meters high, while landslides occurred in eight areas of the region.

Four villagers were killed after landslides hit 29 houses and inundated about 100 buildings in the neighbouring Sibolga district, Nugroho said.

He said the flash floods also destroyed several villages in the Tanah Datar district of West Sumatra province, killing four people, including two children, and leaving three missing. Landslides and flooding in the district of West Pasaman killed one villager and left two missing after 500 homes were flooded and three bridges collapsed.

Nugroho said that the dozens of injured people were moved to the vicinity. The provinces of North and West Sumatra declared a one-week emergency period, as hundreds of terrified survivors fled their homes on the hillsides to safer ground. hospitals and clinics

Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods each year in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.