11 dead in Indonesia landslide, flooding

A landslide and floodwaters triggered by heavy rains barreled into a village in northeastern Indonesia on Friday, killing 11 people and leaving more than 20 others missing, officials said.

At least 64 houses and two churches were either swept away, buried or badly damaged in the disaster on remote Sangihe Island, said Johannes Mongkaren, a local government disaster relief official.

Mongkaren said 11 bodies had been recovered and that 21 people were still missing.

Around 2,600 people had been evacuated and were sheltered in local schools, he said.

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a vast chain of 17,000 islands, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

Flooding and landslides last month killed more than 100 people on Sumatra, the country's westernmost island. In June last year, more than 210 people were killed on Sulawesi island, to the east.

Sangihe is around 1,640 miles northeast of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.