China landslide: One dead and 37 missing after rockfall in south of country

Dozens of homes buried as side of mountain crashes down on outskirts of city

Mountainous Guizhou is one of China's poorest provinces (Google Maps)

One person has died and 37 are missing after a landslide in southern China which buried dozens of homes, state media report.

The Guizhou provincial government said on its microblog the disaster brought the side of a mountain crashing down on the homes of 34 families on the outskirts of the city of Bijie at around midday.

It said rescue teams had been dispatched along with tents, blankets and other emergency supplies.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the disaster, although southern China has been battered in recent days by a pair of typhoons bringing heavy rain that can saturate soil and leave it prone to slipping away on steep angles.

The storms caused more than a dozen deaths in the casino hub of Macau and southern China's Guangdong province over the last week.

Mountainous Guizhou is one of China's poorest provinces.

Additional reporting by AP