Rescue workers carry a body out of a collapsed house in a village of Guangdong's Dapu County after a landslide struck on Monday evening, killing five people and injuring eight.

Injured victims of a landslide on Monday in Guangdong's Dapu County remain in a stable condition in hospital, as local residents come to terms with the moment of terror.

The landslide occurred at around 8 pm in Shixia Village, home to 30 people, when a huge block of mud broke off a hill and smashed through the village.

Eight people were killed and five others were injured when their 100-year-old Hakka-style house was destroyed.

"All other villagers have been evacuated to a temporary shelter, which is located in a residential community of the local government," Huang Zhizhong, spokesman of the Dapu County government, said in a telephone interview with China Daily yesterday.

"I heard a huge roar like wind come from behind the house when I was cooking dinner," Zhang Wangqiang, the first villager to be rescued, was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

"I didn't have time to leave the house because it was destroyed immediately."

Zhang managed to climb out of the mud by smashing a window.

His son and daughter were trapped, and their bodies were found six hours later.

According to the Xinhua report, the huge block of mud was about 150 metres long, 80 metres wide and 10 metres thick.

The cause of the accident is still being investigated, but local geologists suspect continuous rains brought by typhoons Bilis and Kaemi are to blame.

Local geologists rushed to the village to investigate and found that the mud on the hill was totally saturated.

"The village witnessed continuous rain for almost 50 days, and the hills just couldn't take any more water," according to Huang Zhizhong, one of the team.

Editor: Yan