Homes and tourist cottages were swept away by Sunday night's deluge when a river swollen by heavy rains burst its banks in the town of Bohorok, witnesses said as officials blamed the disaster on illegal logging.

Rescue official Johnny Sitorus said he had received unconfirmed reports that about 100 people were still missing.

A 20-year-old German woman, a 40-year-old Austrian woman, a Swiss man aged 30 and a 67-year-old Singaporean man were among those confirmed dead, he said from the provincial capital Medan.

A local police officer, First Brigadier Syahdan, put the death toll at 65 and said that "many more are still missing."

"It happened so fast. Only in 20 minutes the water had washed away houses and cottages," said resident Safaruddin Nasution.

Langkat district chief Syamsul Arifin said the flood was caused by illegal logging inside a neighbouring national park and said it was a disaster waiting to happen.

"We know who the bosses and the thieves are. The victims are not only the environment but also human lives. We have predicted this," Arifin said.

Bohorok, 96 km (60 miles) northwest of Medan city, is on the eastern fringes of the Gunung Leuser national park. It is the home of a famed orang-utan refuge, which is popular with tourists who also go trekking and white-water rafting.

"I saw almost all the resort places swept away by the flood," said a local journalist who visited the scene.

Two buses and dozens of cars were also damaged after being hit by debris and seven bridges were destroyed, he told AFP. Rescue workers stacked bodies outside a mosque.

The flooded river "wiped out at least 10 cottages" in the area, said an employee of Bukit Lawang Cottages which fronts the river.

"Only this hotel and the Batumandi hotel are saved," the employee told AFP by telephone without giving his name.

"The flood last night was so sudden. It was already flooded at 8:00 pm but at 9:30 the water was many times higher, engulfing all houses," said another worker at Bukit Lawang Cottages, Mega Sembiring.

"We are here waiting to be moved," he said.

The official Antara news agency said 72 people were swept away and many phone lines were down. About 43,000 people live in the Bohorok district.

Severe flooding and landslides, often blamed on rampant deforestation, are common during Indonesia's rainy season.

But the confirmed death toll at Bohorok is almost as heavy as that from two months of floods which hit the capital Jakarta in January and February last year.

Arifin, quoted later by Antara, said 40,000 hectares (98,800 acres) of forest in the national park has been destroyed by illegal logging. The timber theft has continued unabated for 10 years, he said.

"The felling of forests by businessmen has been allegedly backed by officers so it has continued unhindered," he complained.

Landslides destroyed 115 houses in four villages in the Kebumen district of Central Java province following heavy weekend rain. No one was hurt.

TERRA.WIRE