Landslide at shrine in Iraq kills seven

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. 

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.