140 people feared buries in China landslide

More than 140 people are feared to have been buried by a landslide in south-west China.

The landslide from a nearby mountain engulfed more than 40 homes and a hotel in Xinmo, a village in Sichuan province, at about 6am local time (2300 BST), the Mao county government said.

Provincial officials said 141 people were missing and 1.6 kilometres (a mile) of road had been buried.

Rescuers pulled out three people, two of whom survived, the official Sichuan Daily newspaper said. The paper also said a family of three, including a one-month-old, managed to escape as the landslide hit their house.

It also blocked a 2km section of a river. Wang Yongbo, a local rescue official, told the state broadcaster CCTV an estimated 3m cubic metres (105m cubic feet) of earth and rock had fallen.

More than 400 people, including police, were involved in the search and rescue effort. CCTV showed them using diggers and ropes to try to dislodge large rocks.

Mao county is home to about 110,000 people. Xinmo is known locally for tourism, but it is unclear whether any visitors might have been caught up in the landslide.