Eight people have been buried in a landslide following heavy rain in eastern Tibet, Xinhua quoted local authorities as saying Saturday.

Nine people were sheltering in a cave near a village in Medog county when the landslides occurred, the official Chinese news agency reported.

One was pulled out with severe injuries and taken to hospital while the search for the other villagers continues, it said.

Mountainous regions of Tibet are prone to such disasters, which can be exacerbated by heavy mining activity.

In 2013 a total of 83 people died when a vast volume of rock crashed down a mountainside east of the capital Lhasa, burying a mineworkers' camp.