141 missing in China landslide

At least 141 people were reported missing on Saturday after a massive landslide hit China's Sichuan province, rescue officials said.

Over 40 homes were destroyed in Maoxian county's Xinmo village after the side of a mountain collapsed at about 6 a.m. (local time), reports Xinhua news agency.

The landslide has also blocked a 2 km section of a river and burying 1,600 metres of road.

The provincial government has launched the highest level of disaster relief response and over 300 rescue personnel are currently deployed in the site, according to Tang Limin, spokesperson of Sichuan provincial government.

Images broadcast on state-run television network, CCTV, show several soldiers lifting heavy rocks and several excavators working in the area where the village was, presumably buried.

Torrential rains during this time of the year are frequent in China, and floods, landslides and other catastrophes caused by meteorological phenomena are quite common.

Floods due to rains during the past few days in the Hunan and Hubei provinces have affected about 390,000 people.

Some 40 homes in the village of Xinmo were swallowed by the cascading debris after the side of a mountain collapsed, blocking a two kilometre (one mile) stretch of river, according to a statement from the Maoxian government news office.

An emergency response "to the first class catastrophic geological disaster" is under way, the statement said, adding that the full extent of the landslide was at yet unclear.

A report from the state news agency Xinhua said that "part of a mountain" in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba had collapsed.