HONG KONG - Hong Kong police said Tuesday they believed a missing family of four had been murdered and buried in a trench outside their village hut.

Police and the fire squad are digging up the ground outside the zinc sheet hut in Ta Kwu Ling - an area near the city's border with China - where a man surnamed Tam lived with his wife and their two young daughters.

Officers launched an extensive search for the family after they received a missing person report from a colleague of Tam who said he had not shown up at work for two days. They later found bloodstains in the hut.

Superintendent Steve Li told reporters they detected the presence of human bodies in the courtyard outside.

"We believe that the bodies were buried in a trench about 30 to 40 feet in front of the victims' house," he said, adding there were signs the ground had been dug up and repaved with cement.

Police have arrested a 42-year-old mainland Chinese man from the village in connection with the case, but he has not been charged.