One person was killed, one injured and two others were missing after a landslide in central China's Hubei Province on Tuesday morning, local government officials said.

The landslide occurred at about 8:40 a.m. at the entrance of a railway tunnel in Badong county, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in southwest Hubei, hitting four workers who were working on scaffolds washing and painting the walls.

One of the workers was killed and one was in "stable condition" with injuries, while two others were missing.

Liu Haiyan, deputy secretary of the prefectural government, said that the government had sent police to divert traffic to a nearby road.

Rescuers were still going through the debris in a search of the two missing workers.

The four workers were all local people who were engaged in constructing a 377-km railway linking Yichang in Hubei and Wanzhou in neighboring Chongqing Municipality. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

The railway, with 114 tunnels and 183 bridges planned along its course, is one of the most intricate rail projects in China.

On Aug. 9, three workers were killed and seven went missing in a flood at the 14-km Yesanguan tunnel, the longest on the railway.

Landslides are also common in Badong county, which is sited on brittle terrain along the Yangtze River. In June, flood debris killed at least one farmer, left seven others missing, and forced about 1,000 villagers to evacuate.

The cause of the latest landslide is unknown but, according to local residents, the region has been soaked by rain in the past couple of days.

Wang Jianmin, vice governor of the Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, is heading a rescue team traveling to the site of the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2007)