BEIJING (AFP) - Four people were killed and 53 remained missing after heavy rains triggered a landslide in a remote and mountainous area of southwest China on Thursday, the government said.

The victims were construction labourers who had been working on a dam in Kangding county, an area traditionally populated by ethnic Tibetans in Sichuan province, according to a statement on the civil affairs ministry's website.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said the disaster occurred at 3:00 am and also blocked a local river, causing a lake to build up behind the rubble.

Three other people were injured and 97 "trapped", the ministry said.

However, Xinhua reported that those trapped had been rescued.

"The heavy rains yesterday and today caused the landslides," said an official at the emergency headquarters of the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where Kangding is located.

He refused to give his name to AFP.

According to China National Radio, a stretch of highway nearly three kilometres (two miles) long was engulfed by the landslide, while electricity to the area was cut and communications disrupted.

Sichuan province was rocked in May 2008 by a massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake that triggered huge landslides across the region's mountainous terrain. Nearly 87,000 people were left dead or missing.

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