Landslide in southern China buries dozens of people and forces hundreds to flee

A landslide in southwest China's Yunnan province killed at least two people and buried another 45 on Monday, according to Chinese state media, as a cold wave blanketed much of the country.

According to state media, more than 500 people have been evacuated. Aerial footage of the crash site from state broadcaster China Central Television showed a dark, yawning ditch jutting out of a snow-covered mountainside, cutting through wide swathes of terraced fields into a cluster of low houses.

The landslide occurred just before 6 a.m. on Monday and struck two small villages in the northernmost part of the province, near the border with Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. The villages of Hexing and Heping are sparsely populated, in a mountainous area once one of the poorest parts of China.

Hundreds of workers climbed over snow-covered rubble to rescue the missing residents, who came from at least 18 different households, state media reported. Temperatures at the landslide site were below freezing Monday morning and snow continued to fall.

Temperatures had dropped across much of China this weekend, with snowstorms expected across much of southeastern China on Monday, according to China's National Meteorological Center. Some trains passing through the region were cancelled because of the weather.

The cause of the Yunnan landslide, and whether it was related to the cold snap, was not immediately clear. The climate in that part of Yunnan is typically subtropical, with an average January temperature of about 36 degrees Fahrenheit. according to the national meteorological authorities.

Joy Dong contributed reporting from Hong Kong.