ISLAMABAD, Feb. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 12 members of a family were killed and two children injured in landslide in a remote village in Pakistan's North West Frontier province early Thursday.     

    The landslide struck a house at 4 am local time when the familymembers were sleeping in a mud house in Mansehra district, some 120 km northeast of Islamabad, a local official named Shah Qabool told the private Geo television on phone from the area.

    Muhammad Yaqub, head of the family, his wife, five daughters, four sons and one their relative buried under the landslide. The two injured children were rescued and shifted to hospital.

    Landslides are common in Pakistan's northern areas when annual rains fall with snow from the Himalayas.

    There has been torrential rainfall in most parts of Pakistan for a week, and Pakistan's meteorological department has asked people to prepare for floods and landslides in the parts as a result of heavy rain and snowfall forecast over the next few days.

    Widespread heavy rain and snowfall over the last week have cut off many northern parts from the rest of the country. Reports saidThursday that eight members of a family were killed Wednesday whenthe roof of a mud house collapsed due to heavy rains in southwestern Balochistan province.

    According to another report some 17 people were killed in different parts of the North West Frontier province in the incident of buildings collapse.

    Muhammad Saeed, a meteorologist at the National Meteorological Office in Islamabad has been quoted as saying that a strong weather system is entering Pakistan from the west. As a result, heavy widespread rain and storms are expected in Balochistan and parts of the southern Sindh province. Enditem