Children die after landslide by China school

on 05/10/2012 08:17:23

All 18 elementary school students buried in a landslide in a mountainous part of south western China are dead, while one other person is missing.

The Yiliang county government said on its website that the children were declared dead early today about 18 hours after the landslide smothered the school and three farmhouses.

It said the missing person was in one of the farmhouses when the landslide struck after 8am yesterday.

The government said the landslide blocked a river, and its water pooled around the buried buildings, hampering rescue efforts.

Officials have yet to give a cause for the landslide but the area has been lashed by rain and is prone to earthquakes. A series of quakes last month left 81 people dead.