Rescuers still digging for survivors in huge mound of earth, days after landslide buried homes in Guizhou province.

At least 36 people have died in a landslide that struck a village in southwest China, with 15 others still missing days after the disaster hit, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The landslide late on Tuesday in Pingdi village, in Guizhou province’s Shuicheng county, buried more than 20 houses, with a thick torrent of mud rolling down from the peak of a mountain to its base, some 500 metres below.

CCTV broadcast footage on Sunday of rescue workers trying to reach survivors through a huge mound of earth, as excavators dug through the collapsed hill.

Two children and a mother with a baby were among the dead.

On Saturday, official news agency Xinhua had said 29 people were dead and 22 others were still missing. Forty people had been rescued from the site, it added, citing the local emergency rescue command.

A local school was set up as an emergency medical and rescue centre, with “multiple rescue teams and experts” still searching for those missing, Xinhua reported.

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The government has assigned $4.35m for search and rescue efforts in the province as well as the relocation of victims.

Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly after heavy rain, and the country has suffered severe flooding this year.

In August 2017, at least 30 people were killed in two separate landslides in Guizhou province.