A total of 179 villagers are facing evacuation Thursday in northwest China's Gansu Province after a landslide cut off road access and damaged crops, the local government said.

The landslide, which happened at 5 a.m. Wednesday, sent 50,000 cubic meters of sand and stones down the hills of Erfang Village, Xihe Township in Yongjing County, the county government said in a press release.

It said the landslide cut off the village road, damaged at least 100 hectares of cropland and destroyed part of the irrigation system.

Residents of 36 households near the landslide are being evacuated amid geologists' warnings of further landslides.

Experts with the county's land and resources bureau said risks of further landslides remained high as the hill slopes were loose with little vegetation in the arid Loess Plateau region.

The cause of the landslide is still under investigation.

A massive rain-triggered mudslide killed more than 1,500 people and left another 264 missing last summer in Zhouqu County, a predominantly Tibetan town in Gansu Province.