She collapsed to the ground wailing and shouting incoherently as her relatives and neighbours restrained her, urging her to recite the Koran and persevere with living after the loss of her three children aged under seven.

Her waiting 38-year-old husband, Yanto, had also struggled as three people worked to restrain him.

He calmed down but then could not say a word as he stared blank-faced, tears streaming down his face, at the ceiling of the two-room junior high school where some 80 survivors of a landslide feared to have killed hundreds were gathered. So far, seven bodies have been found and nine people have died in hospital.

The children's grandfather, Suwari, wearing a tattered shirt and a sarong looped around his waist, left the trio 350,000 rupiah (35 dollars) for their school fees before he left Wednesday morning to sell vegetables at the local market.

"I took care of them since they were one-day old. How can suddenly all of them be whisked away, out of my hands?" he asked, sitting with the family maid who was with the children when they were buried in the mud.

"I leave them pocket money every morning. I love them more than my own children. I don't understand why God took them away from me," he said, speaking Javanese through a volunteer translator.

"I cannot believe that everything that I have has been taken away from me -- without me having a chance to hold them for one last time."

Within the village area designated as Sijeruk, the entire hamlet of Singaraja was buried by the torrent of mud and debris that tumbled down the mountainside early Wednesday, village chief Basirun bin Sameja said.

There were 655 inhabitants based on a 2004 census, and some 177 people have been accounted for. It was unknown how many people had left the village since 2004 or were away Wednesday.

"Many of the residents were praying inside the local mosque when the landslide occurred," he said, adding that he feared this would be where many of the casualties occurred.

Ahmad Suwendi, taking refuge with his 70-year-old mother, wife and two children at the school, said the big landslide at 5:00 am (2300 GMT Tuesday) was preceded by two smaller ones, three and then two hours beforehand.

"The big one... had a thunderous sound similar to an explosion," Suwendi said, adding that he had headed outside to look for the source of the noise as his family fled towards the school where they are now.

"I heard a very loud booming noise and immediately I saw a wave of earth and debris, including homes that were moved by the landslide moving in front of me, and I ran," he said.

"Thank God none of them died, but I am afraid to return back to my village because there is nobody alive there any more."

Rescuers called off their search early Wednesday evening amid safety concerns, but planned to resume their hunt through the mounds of dirt, five metres (16 feet) deep in parts, on Thursday, starting near the mosque.

For parents Yanto and Suwari, the wait was likely to be a long one. Only two excavators were so far working at the site with road damage hindering getting more heavy earth-moving equipment here.

"I am going to wait until their bodies are discovered," Yanto said.

Sumarah could still barely speak but whispered: "I would rather God kill me than lose my own children without me next to them."

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