A landslide, triggered by heavy rains, has crashed into a village in Indonesia's Central Java province, killing at least 10 people and trapping many more under muddy debris.

Yusman Irianto, head of the social department in the nearby town of Banjarnegara, said by telephone from the scene that "10 victims have been found dead and there could be many more because more than 100 houses are buried in mud".

"We are looking for more victims and residents are trying to find out how many are missing."

The pre-dawn landslide, the latest in a series on Java island that killed 71 people earlier this week, smashed into hundreds of houses in a mountainous village of around 700 residents on Wednesday.
Many were probably praying in the village mosque at the time of the landslide, police said, adding that the mosque was destroyed.

"It happened around dawn, when people usually go to the mosque to pray. We have reports the mosque was flattened, so there may be more casualties," said Broto Suyatno, a police officer from Banjarnegara, 350km east of Jakarta.

He added that about 500 of the 722 people in the Central Java village had been reported alive in the wake of the disaster.

Rescue operations

Around the East Java village of Kemiri, hundreds of rescue workers and soldiers have been trying to reach a handful of villages still cut off by floods and landslides that swept through the area late on Sunday.

Officials on Wednesday put the death toll there at 71, including two rescue workers who drowned in swollen rivers.

Floods and landslides are common in Indonesia, especially at this time of the year when the wet season is in full swing.

Many landslides are caused by illegal logging or the clearing of farmland that strips away natural barriers to such disasters.

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Indonesian search and rescue members carry a body of a flood victim. (AFP)