Authorities struggled to get tractors and bulldozers over washed-out roads hours after the landslides.
Hundreds of police, soldiers and residents were digging through the debris with their bare hands, shovels and hoes near a temporary shelter that houses hundreds of villagers who evacuated from the perimeter of the volcano.
Mount Sinabung has sporadically erupted since September, and its alert status was raised to the highest level last week.
Recent eruptions have been smaller, but villagers are waiting until it's safer to return home.
Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a vast chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or fertile flood plains.
