A wall of mud that slammed onto houses from a hillside after heavy rainfall, damaging dozens of homes in Ponorogo district, East Java this morning.
Seventeen people were injured and sent for treatment to a local hospital, the national disaster agency spokesman said as the military, police and volunteers worked to score the area for the missing.
"We are still searching for 28 other missing people, but the search operation has ended for today. We will continue searching if the weather is good Sunday morning," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purno Nugroho told AFP.
Indonesia is often hit by landslides.
Twelve people including three children died in a landslide on the holiday island of Bali last February.
In September, almost thirty people died in devastating floods and landslides in Garut, West Java.