- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
'God, have mercy!': Survivors recount horror of Indonesia flood
Rina Devina was getting ready to go to sleep with her husband and two of her children at home on the Indonesian island of Sumatra when she heard a thunderous noise and someone shouted "flash flood!"
Hours of heavy rain and cold lava from nearby volcano Mount Marapi inundated two districts just before midnight on Saturday, sweeping dozens of people to their deaths and damaging homes, roads and mosques. More than a dozen remain missing.
Residents of Tanah Datar and nearby Agam district who survived recounted their horror when the flash floods tore through, carrying their neighbours away and submerging houses and buildings.
"The rain was very heavy, I heard the thunder and the sound similar to boiling water. It was the sound of big rocks falling from Mount Marapi," Rina, a 43-year-old housewife in Agam, told AFP.
"My house was OK but my neighbour's house was flattened by big rocks. Three of my neighbours died -- the mother, the father, and the child. Another neighbour, an 85-year-old, also died."
The mother-of-three said the electricity was knocked out, leaving her unable to see anything before she escaped to the office of the village head.
She fled into the heavy rain with only the clothes on her back and her family by her side.
"It was pitch black, so I used my cellphone as a flashlight. The road was muddy, so I chanted 'God, have mercy' over and over again," she said.
Rina said she would stay at the shelter until the authorities told her it was safe to go home.
In the flood-hit district of Tanah Datar, the flooding left roads caked in mud, trucks sticking out of a nearby river and mosques smashed by logs and metal sheets.
Some buildings were covered by mud halfway up their walls, with a new, elevated road surface being driven on by locals on motorbikes above the street that used to exist there.
- 'Terrifying' -
The rains turned their neighbourhood into a sea of mud, interrupted only by rooftops, debris and palm trees.
An AFP journalist there said the powerful rains had been "terrifying", forcing residents to seek urgent shelter.
Rescue teams have deployed rubber boats in search of bodies or survivors.
Budi Rahmat, a 44-year-old farmer in Agam, remembered hearing a thundering noise and rocks rolling down the road.
"My house was vibrating. I took a peak outside and saw water flowing," the father-of-five told AFP.
"My house thankfully is OK. It's only flooded by water, not rocks."
He said they were eventually all able to evacuate to safety at a relative's house on higher ground, including his youngest child, a two-year-old.
Residents such as Budi breathed a sigh of relief they and their families had survived, while rescuers carried on the search for the missing in the hope they would be found alive.
"I paced around the house, back and forth, mulling whether or not I should evacuate. My mind was in total chaos," Budi said.
"The only thing I could think about was that I had to save my wife and kids."
A.Rodriguezv--AMWN