Indonesia: Landslides kill 17 on Indonesia's Sumatra island, dozens missing

Jakarta_(dpa) _ Landslides swept through a remote village early Friday in Indonesia's West Sumatra province, killing at least 17 people, local media reported.

The landslides, triggered by several hours of torrential rain, buried a number of houses and a mosque in Jorong Kotabaru village, Solok regency of West Sumatra province, the local MetroTV on-line news reported.

Of the 17 people who were killed, eight of them were people who were inside the mosque, the report said.

Rescue work was still underway to evacuate bodies being buried under tons of muds.

In early January, landslides and flash floods which swept through several villages in Central and East Java provinces killed more than 120 people and injured dozens of others. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and thousands of villagers left homeless.

Environmentalists have blamed massive deforestation from illegal logging as the cause of the flash floods and landslides in various region in Indonesia. dpa dk jh