Residents watched in despair as a home was swept away by raging floods in Indonesia on Saturday.

The wooden property was detached from its foundations while being battered by the muddy torrents surging down hillsides in the Barru district of South Sulawesi.

It came as the region was lashed by several days of continuous heavy rain.

Mo Haeruddin, Head of the Barru BPBD Emergency and Logistics Division, said: 'Flooding is evenly distributed in all sub-districts with water levels above the knees and chests of adults.'

The disaster response chief said floods submerged roads and homes in the city forcing thousands of residents to flee to temporary shelters.

He added: 'A number of housing complexes and roads in the city were flooded. In terms of conditions, almost all of them are serious.'

The annual monsoon flood season in Indonesia occurs during the rainy season, which runs from November to March. The period sees heavy and prolonged rainfall caused by the monsoon winds bringing moisture from the surrounding oceans.

The archipelago's rudimentary infrastructure often struggles to handle the floods.