Chiang Mai – Six people were killed following a landslide after incessant rain in Ruby rich Mogoke town near Burma's second largest city of Mandalay on Saturday night, local residents said.

The landslide, which occurred at about 10:45 p.m (local time) in the suburbs of Mogoke 'Bobadan' village, killed four men and two women and destroyed five houses, the residents said.

"We heard a deafening sound like lightning at about 11 p.m. on the fateful day. Then there was the sound of falling stones hitting houses. Some houses collapsed. I walked out to see what was happening," a local resident from Mogoke told Mizzima.

The dead were identified as Nyunt Shein, Ohn Yee, Tin Maung Soe, Thin Thin Nwe, Maung Nge and Min Tin Sett. They were cremated at the Mogoke cemetery at about 1 p.m. on Monday.

"The heavy and incessant rainfall in Mogoke has been on for about three months now and started even before Cyclone Nargis hit Burma. We cannot see the sun as it rains round the clock. The monsoon this year is unlike previous years, heavy, incessant and long," said U Hla Oo, another local resident of Mogoke.

While one of the bodies could be retrieved on the same day and the rest were found later by Red Cross, the Auxiliary Fire Brigade Force and the people on the next day. The bodies were then sent to Mogoke public hospital.

Mogoke, the famous Ruby land which produces some of the finest Rubies in the world, has seen its second landslide this year. A similar landslide occurred in June killing some people.

Despite of its riches in natural resources, the hill-stationed Mogoke, with its deem-lit nights, narrow roads and lanes, and un-systematic drainages, is prawn to floods and frequent landslides.

Mogoke is about 114 miles north of Mandalay city.