A LANDSLIDE AT a tourist campground in Malaysia has left multiple people, including a five-year-old boy, dead.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of 16 people and authorities said 17 others were feared buried at the site on an organic farm outside the capital of Kuala Lumpur.

An estimated 94 Malaysians were believed to have been at the campsite in Batang Kali in central Selangor state, around 50km north of the capital, when the incident occurred.

District police chief Suffian Abdullah told a news conference a five-year-old boy was among the dead, while seven other people had been hospitalised with injuries.

Another 53 people were rescued without harm. Around 400 personnel were involved in the search and rescue efforts.

The Selangor fire department said firefighters began arriving at the scene half an hour after receiving a distress call at 2.24am local time.

The landslide fell from the side of a road from an estimated height of 30 metres and covered an area of about 1.2 hectares, it said.

The department posted pictures of rescuers with flashlights digging through soil and rubble in the early hours of the morning.

Some families with young children who were rescued took refuge at a nearby police station. Survivors reportedly said they heard a loud thundering noise before the soil came crashing down.

Leong Jim Meng, 57, was quoted by the New Straits Times English-language daily saying he and his family were awakened by a loud bang “that sounded like an explosion” and felt the earth move.

“My family and I were trapped as soil covered our tent. We managed to escape to a carpark area and heard a second landslide happening,” he told the newspaper.

He said it was surprising because there was no heavy rain in recent days, only light drizzles.

The campsite is located on an organic farm not far from the Genting Highlands hill resort, a popular tourist destination with theme parks and Malaysia’s only casino. Access to roads leading to the area have been blocked.

Malaysia has been experiencing year-end monsoon rains, but it was not clear if it was raining before the landslide.