At least 36 people were killed when a landslide struck a mountain village west of the Yemeni capital Sana'a on Wednesday, and the toll is expected to rise as search operations continued on Thursday, officials said in statements carried by DPA. A rocky hill overlooking the village of Dhafir, some 60 kilometres from the capital Sana'a, collapsed and rolled over the village, destroying about 50 houses. Fifteen houses were crushed by giant rocks that slid off the mountain when the hillside collapsed, triggering an avalanche of tons of rocks. Police officials at the scene told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that 20 bodies were recovered on Thursday morning, adding that 87 people were reported missing. Colonel Fadhle al-Anshaly, a police officer overseeing the rescue efforts said 16 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of destroyed houses Wednesday. --More 22 21 Local Time 19 21 GMT
