China landslide buries at least 19 people in Yunnan

A landslide in south-western China has buried at least 19 people, 18 of them children, local officials say.

A school house and two farm houses were buried when the landslide struck a village in Yunnan province early on Thursday, the local government said.

Rescue teams were on their way to the site, the statement said.

A series of earthquakes, including one of 5.8 magnitude, hit the province on 8 September, killing dozens of people.

The landslide happened at 08:00 local time.

It buried the Youfangtai Primary School in the village of Zhenhe, in Yiliang County, Zhaotong City, according to a statement from Yiliang County officials.

Li Zhong, head of Yiliang’s education bureau, said that the students were at school during the national holiday to make up for classes suspended after the September earthquake, reports the China News Service.

A family of three people had managed to flee before the landslide hit, said state-run Xinhua news agency.

Other residents had also been moved to safer places after the landslide, it added.