A wall of mud that slammed onto houses from a hillside after heavy rainfall, damaging dozens of homes in Ponorogo district, East Java on Saturday 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.

Local people had evacuated the village after warnings from officials, staying elsewhere during the nights, but many had returned in the mornings to work on their farms harvesting ginger.

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.

Snapshot of deadly mudslides in recent years
Paris (AFP) April 1, 2017 - Mudslides can inflict a devastating toll in poor countries where ramshackle housing is built on or near slopes vulnerable to heavy rain.

Snapshot of deadly mudslides in recent years
Paris (AFP) April 1, 2017 - Mudslides can inflict a devastating toll in poor countries where ramshackle housing is built on or near slopes vulnerable to heavy rain.

Here is a snapshot of deadly incidents since 2010:

- Colombia mudslides

More than 150 people were killed and hundreds left injured or missing in southern Colombia after mudslides, driven by days of torrential rain, struck late Friday. The incident was the third of its kind in less than seven years. On May 18, 2015, 92 people were killed in Salgar, a mountain city 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the northwestern city of Medellin. On December 5, 2010, 45 people died in a Medellin suburb and 100 more were listed as missing.

- Guatemala deaths -

An October 2, 2015 mudslide following severe flooding buried more than 100 homes, leaving 280 people dead and 70 missing in the village of Santa Catarina Pinula, just outside Guatemala City, the capital.

- Brazilian favelas -

Landslides amid torrential rain swept more than 800 people to their deaths on January 12, 2011, in a mountainous area near Rio de Janeiro. On April 7, 2010, 200 people were listed as missing after another landslide at a favela in Niteroi, near Rio. Days earlier, 250 people died as torrential rain elsewhere in Rio state brought flooding and rockslides.

- Afghanistan hit -

Mud- and rockslides brought havoc on May 2, 2014, to the northeastern Afghan village of Aab Bareek in the Badakhshan region, leaving at least 350 people dead, according to UN estimates.

- Uganda enveloped -

Some 350 Ugandans were killed on March 1, 2010 when a torrent of mud devastated three villages in the eastern Mount Elgon region.

- India monsoons -

Monsoon downpours brought flooding and landslides on June 15, 2013, bringing death to 6,000 people in northern India, with Uttarakhand state worst affected.

Three years earlier, on August 5, 2010, abnormally high rainfall in the Himalayan region of Ladakh led to huge mudslides which devastated the regional capital Leh and its environs. Some 200 people died with 400 more listed as missing.