A landslide has collapsed the ceiling of a Shi'Ite shrine in central Iraq and killed at least seven people, including a child, officials say, as rescuers continued to search for survivors.
The landslide struck Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine near the holy city of Karbala, about 80 kilometres south of Baghdad, on Saturday.
According to Iraq's civil defence, the landslide hit the ceiling of the shrine, which lies in a natural depression, causing it to cave in and dumping a torrent of rock and mud inside the structure.Â
The entrance, walls and the minarets of the shrine, which was built on the place of a water source in the desert, remained standing.
Among the dead were four women, two men and a child, the civil defence said, adding that search teams had rescued six people. On Monday, rescuers were using a bulldozer to try to remove the rubble and search for survivors.
The cause of the landslide was not immediately known. The civil defence blamed high humidity. Nassif Gassim al-Khatabi, Karbala's provincial governor, on Sunday said the shrine area would be closed pending an investigation.