Landslide kills 9 people in northern China

BEIJING – A landslide in northern China trapped and killed nine people Monday morning beneath the falling earth.

More than a hundred firefighters, rescue workers and medical staff were sent to the scene in Shanxi province, the Luliang municipal government said on its official social media account.

The landslide hit shortly before 5 a.m., the post noted. Rescuers with four large machines and five ambulances looked for the people who had been trapped but the search concluded by early Monday afternoon.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the landslide or the identities of the deceased.

The mountainous Luliang prefecture has been hit by a number of landslides over the years, including one in 2008 that killed 19 people.