Indonesian mudslide kills at least 17 people, leaves dozens more missing

Rescuers are using their bare hands, along with sticks and other makeshift tools, to try to dig missing Indonesian villagers out following a Friday mudslide that killed at least 17 people, Reuters reports.

Mud and water raced down a mountainside and into the remote village of Jemblung; officials are now trying to search out dozens of missing people without the help of earth-moving machinery. Indonesia's monsoon season, which lasts from October through April, makes mudslides a relatively common occurrence in the country; isolated, rural areas struggle to bounce back without modern technology or search-and-rescue equipment.

"There was a roaring sound like thunder," a villager from a nearby town told Reuters. "Then I saw trees were flying, and then the landslides. People here panicked and fled."

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