China landslide kills 2, 3 missing

Two villagers died and three others remained buried after a landslide toppled two houses in a central China village Saturday, local authorities said. The landslide happened at 4:30 a.m. in Matou village of Longguangqiao township in Heshan, an outer district of Yiyang city in Hunan Province, Xinhua quoted the press office of the Yiyang city committee of the Communist Party of China as saying in a press release. An avalanche of rocks and mud rained down on the village, demolishing two houses with a combined floor space of 600 square meters, it said. Five villagers were buried in the debris, two of whom were found dead Saturday morning, the document said. It said rescuers were still searching for the other three people, and the cause of the landslide was being investigated.