Four people were killed after a landslide demolished a shrine in the central Iraqi province of Karbala, the health ministry said on Sunday.

Rescue workers pulled out six survivors from the rubble after the landslide, which occurred on Saturday, the statement said. The search and rescue operation was continuing in case more people remained buried under the rubble, it said.

The Qattarat al Imam Ali shrine lies in a natural depression about 25 kilometres from the city of Karbala. It is located in the western desert.

Initial information suggests that humidity had triggered the landslide, which hit the ceiling of the shrine and caused it to collapse, the civil defence service said in a statement.

Three children had earlier been rescued, following Saturday’s disaster, emergency services said, adding that they were in “good condition” and being monitored in a hospital.

Rescue teams working through the night under floodlights were able to provide supplies of oxygen, as well as food and water to the trapped people through gaps in the rubble, said the state news agency INA.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh on Twitter called on the “heroic” rescue workers to “mobilise all efforts to save the trapped people”.

Verbal contact

The emergency responders maintained verbal contact with the victims “to reassure them”.

“We are working hard, with the utmost precision, to reach the trapped people,” Abdelrahman Jawdat, director of the civil defence media department, said.

“Any mistake could lead to further collapses.”

One man at the scene, Bassem Khazali, said his nephew was among those buried under the rubble.

“I am afraid that all the efforts undertaken will be in vain… We want to know what happened, why it happened,” Khazali said.Shaker said “sand dunes and rocks collapsed onto the shrine building”, blaming the saturation of the earth due to humidity.