JAKARTA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Eleven people were killed and 13 were missing on a remote Indonesian island after a landslide following heavy rains, a health department official said on Friday. Fatal landslides occur frequently in Indonesia, where tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides and deforestation often means there is little vegetation to hold the soil. "The 11 people were buried under mud. They were at their homes," Christian Tilla, chief of the North Sulawesi province health department, told Reuters. He said the accident on Sangihe island happened late on Thursday. Sangihe is in the sea between Manado, the North Sulawesi capital 2,200 km (1,400 miles) northeast of Jakarta, and Mindanao, a southern island of the Philippines. "We are working to send body bags and aid via the sea although it takes 12 hours from Manado to reach there since it is not possible to transport them via air. The weather is bad," Tilla said. Communications were difficult because the telecommunications office had been flooded, he added.
