10 dead as landslide hits passing cars on Indonesia’s Java island

The landslide engulfed passing cars on a road in Mojokerto, East Java. Picture: AP

Indonesian rescuers recovered 10 bodies after a landslide struck vehicles on a hilly road on the country’s main island of Java, police said.

Torrential rains pushed mud, rocks and trees down the mountainside road on Thursday, burying a van with seven people aboard and a pick-up truck with three traders and full of vegetables near Watu Lumpang, a resort area in East Java’s Mojokerto district.

Rescuers pulled out the body of the van’s driver late on Thursday while his six family members, including three children, his wife and parents, were retrieved on Friday, together with the bodies of the three traders.

Ten people died in the tragedy (AP)

Footage released by East Java’s search and rescue agency showed the road covered by thick mud, rocks and uprooted trees.

Seasonal rains from about October to April frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.