Authorities in southwest China's Sichuan Province said Friday two people were killed and seven missing in mudslides caused by heavy rains in the southern part of the province.

The emergency response office of Sichuan Provincial Government said it received a report from its branch in Liangshan Ethnic Yi Autonomous Prefecture at 8:45 a.m. saying a residential quarter of Sinohydro Bureau 10, a hydropower engineering and construction company, in Jinyang County, Liangshan, had been buried in rocks and mud. Between six and nine people, all workers from a hydropower plant in the vicinity, were missing.

Rescuers later found the bodies of two workers, but the rest are still missing, the office said.

It rained heavily across the Liangshan prefecture from Thursday evening to 8 a.m. Friday, the prefectural weather service said.

It also predicted torrential rains would continue during Friday into the night in the southern Sichuan region, warning departments to mount careful patrols of rivers, mines, schools, roads against potential natural disasters such as flash floods and landslides.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2009)