Deadly mudslide buries village

A village in China was buried after heavy rains triggered deadly landslides, news reports said today.

A mudslide last night swept through the village of Heba in Garze, an ethnic Tibetan region of Sichuan province, killing 12 people and injuring 18 others, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Another 340 people were left homeless, the report said.

In the nearby county of Shimian, rains caused a rock to tumble down a hillside and slam into a bus, knocking the vehicle off the road and killing nine people, Xinhua said.

Shimian county is part of the city of Ya’an, while Garze is west of the city, Xinhua said.

The heavy rains on Thursday and yesterday also damaged 3,000 houses, four kilometres (2 1/2 miles) of highway and thousands of acres of farmland, Xinhua said.

It said the local government was distributing tents, food and water.