12 people dead after landslide buries hotel in China

Rescuers in China have recovered the bodies of 12 people killed inside a hotel which was buried in a landslide.

State media reported on Sunday that rescuers were able to pull out everyone trapped underneath rocks and debris after the Friday night landslide in Hunan province.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 105,000 cubic feet of debris tumbled down a slope behind the three-storey hotel in Nanzhang county.

The largest rock weighed 150 tons, and the amount of debris hampered rescuers worried about the rocks caving in or sliding further.

The cause of the collapse remains under investigation.

Rescuers earlier had pulled five survivors from the debris, two of whom died in a hospital.

Hilly and densely populated Hunan is frequently struck by landslides triggered by heavy rainfall.