A sand yard landslide on Friday killed two people and injured one in Chifeng City, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local police said Saturday.

The three people were operating a shovel loader in the sand yard in Hexigten Banner of Chifeng City when a sand hill collapsed and buried them early Friday.

Eight rescuers rushed to the scene. They had to dig with bare hands to avoid harming the buried accidentally.

It took the rescuers two hours to retrieve the three buried, two of whom dead. The injured was immediately sent to a local hospital and is now out of danger.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2009)