BEIJING (AFP) - A landslide killed nine people in a village in northern China on Monday (April 30), the authorities said.

The disaster occurred in the village of Caijiazhuang shortly before 5am (2100 GMT Sunday), Luliang municipal government in Shanxi province said on its official social media account.

More than a hundred firefighters, medical workers and rescuers - some using earth-moving machinery - were sent to the site to search for survivors trapped under fallen earth.

The cause of the landslide has not been confirmed. A 2008 landslide in Luliang city killed 19 people.