Police said Friday the men, aged 27, 43 and 47, died a day earlier, buried under earth and mud sliding down near the town of Sorum. They were not identified further.

In a statement, police said the men were working on a digging crew when they were buried under the 300-metre (-yard) -wide slide. Three others managed to get away.

Darkness and unstable earth made it difficult for emergency crews to recover the bodies, and search efforts with helicopters and search dogs were postponed until daylight Friday.