At least 157 people, including children and pregnant women, have died in mudslides triggered by heavy rain in a remote Kencho Shacha Gozdi district of Ethiopia, according to a local official.

Most of the victims were buried in a mudslide on Monday morning as rescue workers searched the steep terrain for survivors of another mudslide the previous day.

Five people have been pulled alive from the mud, news agency Associated Press quoted Dagmawi Ayele, a local administrator, as saying.

"There are children who are hugging corpses, having lost their entire family, including mother, father, brother and sister, due to the accident," Dagmawi Ayele said.

Landslides are frequent in Ethiopia during the rainy reason, which started in July and is expected to last until mid-September.