JAKARTA, Indonesia—A government official says two landslides triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 17 people and left ten others missing on Indonesia’s main island of Java.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Tuesday that five houses were buried when mud rolled down from surrounding hills in Mekarsari village of East Java’s Jombang district.
He said rescuers pulled five bodies from mounds of mud and were searching for 10 others reportedly missing and feared dead under tons of debris.
Another landslide hit Central Java’s Kudus district late Friday, leaving at least 12 villagers dead.
Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods each year in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains near rivers.
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