Indonesia landslide on Java island kills 5, over a dozen missing

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A landslide on Indonesia's heavily populated island of Java on Thursday killed at least five people and left more than 15 people missing, an official at the country's disaster agency said.

The landslide, which struck a village in central Java, also injured 14 people, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster agency said in a statement.

Rescuers not yet been able to use heavy equipment to remove earth where victims might be trapped, officials said.

"Our team hasn't arrived yet. A lot of roads have been cut off because of the landslide," Noer Isrodin, an official from the country's National Search and Rescue Agency, told Metro TV.

The official said that two excavators were trying to reach the location.

Some of the injured were being treated in a community health centre, while a woman with broken bones was being treated in a regional hospital, said a local mayor.

Indonesia suffers regular landslides, particularly during the monsoon season, sometimes exacerbated by forest clearance.

(Reporting by Jessica Damiana; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Kim Coghill)