Twelve people died and another six were injured after a mountain flood caused a landslide which destroyed a one-story hostel in a village of Hengyang, Hunan province on Sunday morning, according to Hunan Daily.

The incident occurred at 8:18 am on Sunday and six more people were still missing, the report said.

The village belongs to the Nanyue district of Hengyang, where the famous tourist attraction Hengshan Mountain is located.

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Top provincial officials have led a team to the site and search and rescue efforts are underway, it added.

Torrential rain has battered 494 townships in Hunan from 8 am on Saturday to 8 am on Sunday in the wake of Typhoon Gaemi, according to the Hunan provincial meteorological center. The rainfall is expected to continue in most parts of the province with the central and northern parts expected to have heavy rain till Monday daytime, the center said.

The province's headquarters for flood and drought control raised the response level for the flood to the second-highest on Saturday night.