(Updates toll) JAKARTA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A landslide triggered by heavy rains killed 16 people on a remote Indonesian island and a further 10 were missing, a health department official said on Friday. More than 60 houses and two churches were damaged in the landslide on Sangihe island late on Thursday, Christian Tilla, chief of the health department of North Sulawesi province, said. At least five people were injured, he told Reuters by text message. Landslides occur frequently in Indonesia, where tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides and deforestation often means there is little vegetation to hold the soil. 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. Tilla said bad weather was hampering efforts to send aid and body bags to the remote area. The local telecommunications office had been flooded, he said, making contact with the island difficult.
