JAKARTA • At least four people have died and 16 are missing after a landslide caused by torrential rain swept away several homes in Indonesia, officials said, with hundreds forced to flee.

According to the emergency response unit at the Nganjuk Social Affairs Agency in East Java, rescuers retrieved four bodies and rescued two people.

"Heavy lifting equipment is currently on its way to the location. And 16 people are still not found," the unit's coordinator, Mr Aris Trio Effendi, was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying yesterday. Mr Effendi said the area, which has many residential houses, is prone to landslides. At least 13 houses have been damaged.

According to him, at least 160 people have been evacuated.

"We cannot bring heavy equipment to the site of the landslides currently. However, we are trying to make our way," the East Java Search and Rescue Agency told AFP in a written statement.

Pasuruan, a town in the same province, was also flooded after a river overflowed due to the heavy downpours, forcing more than 350 people to flee their homes, the agency added.

XINHUA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE