26 dead, scores missing in Indonesian landslide

At least 26 people have died after torrential downpours triggered landslides that destroyed a village, officials said.

Indonesian rescuers using heavy-lifting equipment were searching for more than 80 people missing and clear the area after the disaster struck Jemblung village in central Java.

Police, soldiers and volunteers used bare hands and makeshift tools to search for survivors and clear the area on Saturday after the disaster struck.

There were 2,000 rescuers involved in the operation on Sunday.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said 82 people were missing and 577 people from surrounding areas had been taken to temporary shelters.

"Those who died were trapped under soil," he said.

Fifteen people were injured, including 11 seriously, and 577 people were evacuated to temporary shelters, Nugroho said.

"Many of [the survivors] were injured from being hit by debris and are being treated in the hospital," he said.

Nugroho said survivors were in need of food, blanket, medicine and clothes.

Hundreds have been evacuated from around Jemblung village in the Banjarnegara district of central Java, about 450km from the capital, Jakarta, where media pictures showed a flood of mud and water cascading down a wooded mountainside.

The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, was headed for the site where he said he would assess whether more heavy-lifting equipment was needed.

“We’re going to the field to understand the situation,” Widodo said. 

“Aid is not a problem; what is most important is the speed of the evacuation.”

Mudslides are common in Indonesia during the monsoon season, which usually runs from October until April.

There had been a fatal landslide in 2007 but people still chose to live there, he said.