YINCHUAN  -- A landslide has left five people dead and two injured in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, local authorities said Thursday.

The landslide occurred at 9:27 am Thursday, when seven villagers in Tongxin County were digging on a hill for a kind of fossil which could be used as traditional Chinese medicine, according to the regional public security department.

Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of the five people killed in the landslide. The injured were sent to a local hospital and are in stable condition.