Water surged through villages at around 8:00 pm (1300 GMT) Thursday after around eight hours of heavy rains had battered the area.

"Before the floods came, people were just relaxing in their houses. When they heard a roaring sound, they panicked and started to run to the hills to save their lives," Pidie district deputy regent Nazir Adam said.

"Eight people are missing," he said.

The floods wrecked more than a hundred houses across nine villages in the district.

Adam said the number of dead could rise as one village had been completely cut off by the waters.

"The floods occurred because of illegal logging activity surrounding this area. There are many logs scattered on the road here now which came with the floods," he said.

Last year, flash floods in the remote area of Papua killed at least 148 people. The government denied the floods in Papua were caused by rampant deforestation.

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