Landslide kills 23 people, destroys dozens of homes in China's Sichuan

A landslide triggered by heavy rain killed at least 23 people in China's mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan on Tuesday, state media reported.

Extreme weather this summer has triggered a series of landslides and floods across the country, leaving scores dead and tens of thousands displaced.

The latest disaster hit Gengdi village in Puge county at around 6:00 am, the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that four others were injured and one person remained missing.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, authorities estimated that 71 houses and five kilometres of roads had been destroyed, the Sichuan government information office said in a social media post.

Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly after heavy rain.

A massive landslide in June killed at least 10 people and buried dozens of homes in a village in Sichuan after rains brought down a mountainside.

In July, 63 people were killed by landslides and floods in the central province of Hunan. Some 1.6 million people were forced from their homes.