Rescuers find bodies of family lost in landslide

Authorities said the family was in the basement watching an ice hockey game on Monday night when a massive landslide hit in Saint-Jude, a town of 1,000 north east of Montreal.

"After digging and going through the rubble we found the four victims," Michael Dore, Quebec's emergency management co-ordinator, said. "They were found very close to one another, some of them lying on the couch in the family room in the basement."

The bodies belonged to Richard Prefontaine, his wife Lynne Charbonneau and daughters Anais, nine, and Amelie, believed to be 11. Sinkholes can occur when water undermines an area of land or when rock below the land surface shifts.