Seven people were dead and another 20 missing after a landslide swept down upon the village of Yingping in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou Wednesday night.

Along with the dead and missing, 22 people were injured and were taken to area hospitals. Another 154 people were affected by the disaster.

Like Us on Facebook

Rescue efforts in Yingping are on on-going. Rescue teams said local environmental conditions "bring some difficulties" to search and recovery operations.

Torrential rain hit the region on Aug. 26, causing serious flooding in several towns and cities across several provinces. Images from earlier this week show water levels up to people's waists. 

State television network CCTV said the Yingping landslide was caused by a breach in a small reservoir, and the resultant flood caused further damage to the village. The channel showed dozens of rescuers and army personnel combing a wide area covered in dried mud and strewn with debris. Local media pictures showed teams and army personnel trying to move large slabs of collapsed concrete in attempts to find missing villagers.

The landslide struck at around 8 p.m. local time, when many Yingping villagers were in their homes. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported 70 houses in the town were destroyed. 

Guizhou is one of China's poorest provinces. Besides its hilly topography, lack of infrastructure is hampering rescue efforts.

Although underdeveloped, Guizhou has abundant mineral resources including coal, limestone, arsenic, gypsum and oil shale. Mining is the main industry, but disregard for ecological practices has resulted in serious soil erosion in the surrounding hills and valleys and across much of the province.

The Yingping landslide is one of a growing list of catastrophes to hit China's southern provinces. An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck a remote region in neighbouring Yunnan province on August 3, killing 615 people. In 2010, the area was gripped by a severe drought.

Tagslandslide