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China says it has successfully landed a spacecraft on the Moon's surface in an historic mission to gather rock samples.

Its robotic Chang'e-5 mission touched down on Tuesday 1 December and is expected to spend the next few days collecting samples of dust and rock.

It landed in a highly volcanic region of the Moon called Oceanus Procellarum.

It will be the first time in 44 years that samples have been brought back from the Moon.

The spacecraft has a number of features to help do this, including a camera, radar, a scoop and a drill.

The 8.2 tonne machine was launched from Wenchang spaceport in southern China on 24 November.

It arrived above the Moon at the weekend and then split into two.

One half stayed in orbit and the other segment was prepared for a touchdown attempt, which took 15 minutes.

The smaller craft on the Moon will head back up to the one in orbit and then return to Earth with about 2kg of soil.

The last mission to collect Moon samples was the Soviet Luna mission in 1976.

It follows China's two previous Moon landings - Chang'e-3 in 2013 and Chang'e-4 last year.

The materials being brought back are thought to be 1.2 or 1.3 billion years old and should provide insights on the geological history of the Moon.