"As of today 113 bodies have been recovered but we keep receiving reports of missing people and as of now, 147 are still missing," said Johnny Sitorus of the search and rescue office in the provincial capital Medan.

Hopes of finding the missing alive are slim but the search will continue, Sitorus said.

Rescuers in recent days have given different figures for the number reported missing and caution that the figure could include some people who were out of town when the flood struck Sunday night.

But at least 200 people are feared dead after the flood swept through the resort town of Bahorok in Langkat district.

The level of the Bahorok river had subsided Friday but a massive pile of logs and mud in the area are hampering the search, Sitorus said.

He said his office will evaluate on Monday how long the search would continue but "it doesn't mean that we will stop the process after one week."

Among those killed were five foreigners. About 450 homes or other structures were destroyed along with 35 resort cottages, two mosques and eight bridges.

Senior officials including Vice President Hamzah Haz have said rampant illegal logging in the neighbouring Gunung Leuser national park helped cause the disaster.

Bahorok, 96 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Medan, is on the eastern fringes of the park. It is the home of a famed orangutan refuge, which is popular with tourists who also go trekking and white-water rafting in the area.

Environment minister Nabiel Makarim has branded illegal loggers as terrorists, saying floods and landslides triggered by deforestation are "just as dangerous as the consequences of a bomb."

Makarim criticised the army and police for their role in the practice, which is rampant across much of the huge archipelago.

TERRA.WIRE