More than 6,300 students, teachers and local residents were evacuated after a landslide struck southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Thursday.

No casualties were reported in the landslide, which hit the Fuling District at Thursday noon.

All the students and teaching staff with the Fuling No. 5 Middle School were relocated to safety on the day of the natural disaster.

The school authority sent 4,200 students home on Friday to guarantee their safety, keeping 2,000 others who were preparing for the college entrance examination in temporary classrooms in a building outside the area.

The school will rent more classrooms in the downtown area for the students if the landslide threat remains, said Huang Liangxin, deputy president with the school.

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2008)