Thousands of people were killed after two dams above Derna broke on Sept 10 during a powerful storm, bringing down residential blocks lining a usually dry river bed as people slept.

A torrent unleashed by a powerful storm burst dams and hurtled down a seasonal riverbed that bisects the city, washing multi-storey buildings into the sea with sleeping families inside.

Many dazed survivors mourned multiple family members killed in the flash floods that swept away entire homes and buried the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi, both in South Kivu province, in muck and debris.

The rescue revived hopes that survivors could still be pulled alive from the wreckage days after the strong tremor that hit the West Java town of Cianjur, killing at least 271 people.

The death toll from the 5.6-magnitude quake in Cianjur has continued to rise as the full extent of the disaster has emerged.

Firefighters battled the blaze with two water jets, employing ladders and breathing apparatus' in the effort to rescue those trapped.

Rescue teams will not stop searching until the last miner is found although high underground water levels in a section of the mine have complicated rescue operations.