According to local government sources yesterday, a cave-in buried 12 women and 12 men in the northern province Shanxi on Monday.

Around 650,000 cubic meters of loess collapsed at about 11:00 PM in Qiaonan Village, Jixian County, and the fates of the 24 farmers trapped are still unknown.

Sixteen local residents survived the tragedy, which engulfed 11 houses. They have been relocated to safe accommodation, and rescue efforts continue with more than 20 bulldozers and trucks working at the site.

The cave-in was 250 meters wide and 80 meters deep, and experts said it was a natural geological disaster.

Loess is fine-grained earth distributed by wind that can form large, deep unstratified deposits.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2005)