Landslide kills 8 in China's south-western province of Guizhou: Report

Rescuers search for survivors in the debris after a landslide in Fuquan, in southwest China's Guizhou province, on Aug 28, 2014. Eight people died and another 17 were left missing by a landslide in China, state media reported on Thursday. -- PHOTO: A
Rescuers search for survivors in the debris after a landslide in Fuquan, in southwest China's Guizhou province, on Aug 28, 2014. Eight people died and another 17 were left missing by a landslide in China, state media reported on Thursday. -- PHOTO: AFP
Rescuers search for survivors in the debris after a landslide in Fuquan, in southwest China's Guizhou province, on Aug 28, 2014. Eight people died and another 17 were left missing by a landslide in China, state media reported on Thursday. -- PHOTO: AFP
Rescuers search for survivors in the debris after a landslide in Fuquan, in southwest China's Guizhou province, on Aug 28, 2014. Eight people died and another 17 were left missing by a landslide in China, state media reported on Thursday. -- PHOTO: AFP
Rescuers work together to move a piece of collapsed wall as they search for survivors in Fuquan, in southwest China's Guizhou province, after a landslide on Aug 28, 2014. Eight people died and another 17 were left missing by a landslide in China, state media reported on Thursday. -- PHOTO: AFP

BEIJING (AFP) - Eight people died and another 17 were left missing by a landslide in China, state media reported Thursday.

The landslide engulfed a village near Fuquan city in the southwestern province of Guizhou, the Xinhua news agency said.

Torrential rain complicated the rescue work, it said.

Pictures showed emergency personnel levering up slabs of tiled wall.

A total of 77 houses collapsed or were buried in the disaster, Xinhua said, with eight people confirmed dead and another 17 missing.

Guizhou is one of the poorest provinces in China, and renowned for its hilly topography and wet weather.

Mining is one of its key industries but soil erosion is among the worst in China, with around 42 per cent of the province affected, according to an official national survey in 2009.

Guizhou neighbours Yunnan, which was hit by a 6.1-magnitude earthquake earlier this month that killed more than 600 people.

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