Twelve people were trapped in the wee hours of Tuesday by a landslide in Zizhou County of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, sources said Wednesday.

Though a rescue team consisting of more than 300 rescuers are still working very hard to locate and find survivors, the fate of the 12 victims remained unknown by Wednesday morning.

The accident occurred in Liangjiagou village, Shuidiwan township at about 1:00 am Tuesday when eight cave-houses of farmer Liang Zhengde and his son were tumbled by about 12,000 cubic meters of earth and rocks, local officials said. Eight family members and four relatives were buried in the collapsed cave homes.

The tragedy was only discovered by Liang's neighbors after daybreak Tuesday since the villagers are living far apart around the area.

The police's preliminary investigation said that over-digging in the hillsides by the Liangs and heavy rainfall in the region since August were to be blamed for the tragedy.

Cave-houses are common in northwestern China, where locals dig caves into hills and use them as their shelters.

(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2003)