GUIYANG - Five people were killed and three others injured in a landslide that hit an expressway construction site in southwest China's Guizhou Province early Sunday morning, local authorities said.

The landslide happened at around 5 a.m. in Gaoniang township, Tianzhu County, where a makeshift dormitory of China Railway No. 2 Engineering Group Co., Ltd collapsed, burying eight construction workers.

As of Sunday noon, rescuers had retrieved five bodies, and the three injured had been sent to a nearby hospital, sources with the county's publicity department said.

An initial investigation showed that recent rainfall was to blame for the landslide.

A further investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.