Thousands evacuated amid floods in Indonesia

Thousands of people were being evacuated on the outskirts of Indonesia's capital Jakarta on Monday amid flooding after the Citarum River embankment broke.

"Some embankments are broken, not only from the river embankment but also from the irrigation embankments," Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said.

Rescuers from the National Search and Rescue Agency have been deployed.A spokesperson for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said that more than 28,000 residents in four villages in Bekasi district and 34 villages in Karawang district were affected by the floods.

At least 4,184 people were being evacuated.Thousands of houses in the area were covered with 100 to 250 centimeters (40 to 100 inches) of water and were without power.Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains close to rivers.