TEGUCIGALPA - Six children, five of them brothers and sisters, were killed in northern Honduras Thursday when a landslide buried two homes under a ton of soil.

The landslide hit the village of El Balin in Santa Cruz de Yojoa just past midnight Wednesday, when the children were sleeping, the Fire Department said in a statement.

Two sisters survived the landslide and were taken to a public hospital in San Pedro Sula, 240 km north of the capital Tegucigalpa, for treatment of injuries, the department said.

The landslide was caused by a two-hour downpour in the area, according to the statement.

Also Thursday, the Honduran Permanent Emergency Committee announced a 48-hour green alert in northern Honduras due to the heavy rains.

On July 14, two people were killed and five other injured in a landslide in eastern Tegucigalpa.