Death toll in SW China mudslides rises to 14

The death toll in a pair of mudslides in southwest China's Yunnan province Monday has risen to 14, and 11 people remain missing, the local government said.

A mudslide in a village in Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong early in the morning killed 13.

As of midnight, seven people were still missing and seven others were injured.

The mudslide happened at around 6am in Huna Village of Manghai Town, where 13 houses were crushed and dozens were damaged.

The surviving villagers have been resettled at the village school and given tents and beddings, an official with the prefectural government told Xinhua.

The injured are being treated at the town's clinic.

Continuous downpours have also blocked roads linking the village to other areas and cut off power supply.

Armed police officers in town have dug out a narrow path for relief materials to be sent into the village, but vehicles were still unable to drive in.

Another mudslide was reported at 12:30pm in Yuanjiang County in the city of Yuxi, where one villager died and four others were buried.

The five victims belonged to one family and their house was crushed by the mudslide, the local government said in a statement.

Rescuers retrieved a dead body in the afternoon and were still searching for the four others.

Affected by super typhoon Rammasun, the worst to hit south China in four decades, many parts of Yunnan Province have suffered rainstorms and mudslides.

As of 7pm Monday, 330,000 people in 27 counties were affected by the typhoon and 38 were dead or missing, the provincial civil affairs bureau said.

Meanwhile, more than 50 homes toppled and nearly 1,000 people were forced to evacuate, it said.

The weather bureau has forecast rain in most parts of the province, which threatens to obstruct rescue work.