At least eight people are dead and five are missing after flooding and landslides hit eastern Indonesia, an official said on Tuesday.

A search and rescue operation is under way, with police and military personnel scouring rubble for the missing, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

The tragedy came after heavy rain on Monday night caused the Moa-Moa river, which cuts through the city of Ambon on the Maluku chain of islands, to overflow.

"Eight were killed and five are still missing. Another 10 were injured," Nugroho stated.

The floods submerged some houses on the river's banks and triggered landslides in several areas among Ambon's hills. Nine houses were swept away or buried and another 30 damaged.

Floods and landslides are common in Indonesia, which is prone to frequent bursts of heavy rain.

Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land for exacerbating flooding.

Four survive after landslide engulfs car: video
Beijing, Beijing Shi (AFP) July 30, 2013 - Extraordinary video footage captured during torrential storms that hit northwest China this month shows four men making a miraculous escape when a landslide engulfs their car as they travel along a mountain road.

The vehicle is making its way steadily along the road, its hazard lights flashing in the rain, when it is suddenly battered by huge quantities of mud, stones and trees crashing down from above.

The impact was so heavy that even the camera, mounted on the roadside some distance away, shakes.

When the torrent finally stops the car is covered in debris, but two passengers quickly emerge, followed by another man, and the three then help a fourth person out of the vehicle.

A pedestrian walking under an umbrella ahead of the car appears to have been just outside the impact zone, although he cannot be seen after the landslide.

The footage was recorded in the northwest Chinese city of Yan'an earlier this month when destructive storms hit Shaanxi province.

Parts of China are hit by heavy rain every summer.

Floods and landslides have killed 50 people so far this month in Shaanxi, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.