Landslide kills 15 at tea plantation

Rescuers used heavy digging equipment to clear a muddy landslide that killed at least 15 people and left 57 buried on Indonesia' main island of Java.

Days of heavy rain prompted the landslide at a mountainous tea plantation near the village of Tenjoljaya in Ciwidey district of West Java province, destroying scores of homes.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said scores of soldiers and police plus two excavators bolstered search efforts and 15 bodies had been recovered from a vast pile of clay by the afternoon.

He said some 600 villagers from the region were evacuated to temporary shelters in safer locations.