Ten killed after torrential rain triggers landslide in East Java's Mojokerto district

# Ten killed after torrential rain triggers landslide in East Java's Mojokerto district

Event date: 2025-04-04

Indonesian rescuers recovered 10 bodies after a rain-triggered landslide struck vehicles on a hilly road in East Java, in an accident that buried a van and a pickup truck and left the road blocked by mud, rocks and uprooted trees.

Police said the slide hit the road in Mojokerto district near Watu Lumpang, a resort area, after torrential rain pushed debris down the mountainside. The AP report in the evidence packet says the van carried seven people and the pickup truck carried three traders and vegetables when the mud came down on Thursday.

Local police chief Andi Yudha Pranata said rescuers pulled out the body of the van’s driver late Thursday and recovered his six family members on Friday. The family members included three children, the wife and the parents of the driver. The bodies of the three traders were also recovered, bringing the death toll to 10.

The AP evidence says at least 30 other people survived. That detail helps explain why the immediate response focused on search and recovery rather than a broader missing-persons operation. East Java’s Search and Rescue Agency released footage showing the road buried in thick mud, rocks and trees, a scene that reflected how quickly conditions can turn deadly during Indonesia’s wet season.

The landslide fits a recurring pattern in the country. Seasonal rains from roughly October to April often bring flooding and landslides across Indonesia, a vast archipelago where millions of people live in mountainous terrain or near fertile flood plains. Those geographic realities make even routine travel dangerous when rain loosens soil on steep roads.

The evidence packet does not suggest the vehicles were travelling in a forbidden area or under unusual weather warnings. Instead, it shows a familiar but still lethal hazard: a road that remained in use despite being vulnerable to rain, slope failure and falling debris. In that sense, the disaster is less a surprise than a reminder of the persistent risk faced by people moving goods and families through hilly parts of Java.

For the village and district where the slide happened, the scale of the loss was immediate and personal. One vehicle carried a family, another carried traders returning with produce. Both were overtaken by the slide, and the recovery operation then moved from rescue to body retrieval. The route’s roadbed had been transformed into a wall of mud and debris.

The AP report also places the disaster in the wider context of Indonesia’s transportation network. In many remote or mountainous areas, roads are poor or nonexistent, so wooden boats or risky roads remain the main options. That leaves communities exposed when weather turns harsh.

The result in Mojokerto was a fatal landslide with a clear weather trigger and a clear toll. Ten people died, families lost multiple members at once, and the recovery teams had to work through debris to retrieve the bodies. The event date supplied with the packet is April 4, 2025, but the danger it describes is an enduring one for rainy-season travel across Indonesia.