NEW DELHI: Ten impoverished women working as daily wage laborers died after being buried alive Wednesday in southern India by a mudslide, police said. The incident took place in the Narayanpet district of Telangana state, a senior police officer told AFP. "They were daily wage laborers and were working at a digging site. They went near a hill to have their lunch when the mudslide occurred," said G. Sridhar, the deputy police superintendent of Narayanpet.

Police and rescue officials used earth movers to clear the mud and retrieve the bodies. The Press Trust of India news agency quoted witnesses as saying the women were buried under a mound of mud some six to eight feet deep. State Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao asked officials to provide help to the families of the victims who he said "belonged to the poorest strata" of the society. Hundreds of people die in floods and landslides across India each year. The landslides are more common during the monsoon season which runs from June to September.-AFP