SW China landslide death toll climbs to 22

Rescuers combing the rubble at a landslide site in southwest China retrieved two more bodies Sunday morning, bringing the total death toll in the disaster to 22, rescue authorities said.

Twenty-two others have been injured and one has remained missing as of 10 am, four days after a 600-meter-high knoll broke free and swept into the village in Fuquan City of the mountainous Guizhou province, officials with the rescue headquarters told Xinhua.

The victims and the missing in the landslide are from 10 households in the Yingping Village. Authorities said many juveniles are among them.

Residents said Yingping was occupied mainly by children and elderly when the landslide struck, as many villagers in the remote and impoverished region had moved to cities for work.

Over 1,000 rescuers, including nearly 400 soldiers, armed police and firefighters, have been involved in the massive rescue.

The cause of the landslide is still under investigation.