At least two people were killed and over 40 others went missing after a landslide struck southwest China's mountainous Yunnan province on Monday.

The disaster struck the Liangshui village of Zhaotong city at 5:51 am Beijing time, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Over 500 residents were evacuated from the landslide-hit areas as the provincial commission for disaster reduction activated a Level-III emergency response for disaster relief, state-run CCTV reported.

Efforts were ongoing to rescue the people trapped under the landslide, official media reported, adding that two of the missing people found dead.

The 47 buried people were from 18 different households, rescue officials said.

More than 200 rescuers, along with 33 firefighting vehicles and 10 loading machines, were mobilised to search for the missing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered an all-out search and rescue of the people missing in a landslide.

[We should] promptly organise rescue teams, make all-out efforts to search for missing individuals, and minimise casualties to the greatest extent possible,” Xi said, according to the report.

Xi, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called on party cadres to watch out for other natural disaster risks and hidden dangers “to effectively ensure the safety of people’s lives and property” as a result of the wave of cold weather that swept across southern China just three weeks before the Lunar New Year.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, too, ordered an all-out rescue effort in Liangshui and emphasised the need to maintain social stability, in light of the area’s high altitude and ethnic diversity.

“It is necessary to promptly evacuate the threatened population, handle resettlement properly, effectively ensure the safety of people’s lives and property, and maintain overall social stability,” he said, official media reported.

The cause of the landslide was not immediately known.

The local weather forecast said there will be light snow in the town on Tuesday, with the lowest temperature expected to reach -3 degrees Celsius, the report said.

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