Residents look towards submerged houses in a flooded neighbourhood in Jakarta. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
Rescuers were digging by hand through mounds of earth in Kudus district, central Java, to reach six houses buried by the landslide as the area was too remote to be reached by heavy machinery.
"The victims were sleeping when the landslide struck," said local disaster agency official Junaidi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
He said rescuers had so far found the body of a woman after Tuesday's landslide and had also rescued one man alive but 12 people were still missing.
Deadly landslides and flooding are common during Indonesia's six-month rainy season, and in the past week several parts of the country have been affected.
Widespread flooding in the capital Jakarta has left five people dead and more than 60,000 displaced, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
