Disease Fears Hit Indonesia: Rains to Follow

"We expect residents to stay alert because water may rise again and very fast," said Sihar Simanjuntak, an official monitoring the many rivers that crisscross this city of 12 million people.

People living in one upscale area hired carts and horses to pull them to safety.

"The government is awful," said Augustina Rusli, who for five days was trapped on the second floor of her house with her 10-month old baby, expecting the floods to be short-lived. "We have a neighbor who is sick with cancer but no one has come to rescue her."

"We fear that diarrhoea and dysentery may break out, as well as illnesses spread by rats," one official said.

More than a third of a million people are thought to have fled their homes amid Jakarta's worst floods in years, caused by days of torrential rains.

While floods were said to have receded in some places, more rain is forecast.