At least 170 people have been confirmed dead in a flash flood which swept through a resort town in one of Indonesia's biggest national parks, a senior Indonesian official said Tuesday.

A river in the Gunung Leuser national park on Sumatra Island burst its banks in the early hours of Monday after torrential rains, sweeping away roads, bridges and budget guesthouses popular with foreign backpackers and local tourists.

"The number who have died up until now is 170 people according to the available data," North Sumatra Governor Rizal Nurdin told reporters at the site.

Verified by the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia, so far there has been no casualty report of Chinese citizens in the flash flood.

(Sources including China Daily and fmprc.gov.cn, November 5, 2003)