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China landslide: more than 140 people feared buried China landslide: at least 15 dead and more than 100 feared buried
(about 7 hours later)
More than 140 people are feared to have been buried by a landslide in south-west China. At least 15 people have been killed and about 100 are believed to be buried in the debris after a landslide in south-west China’s Sichuan province.
The landslide from a nearby mountain engulfed more than 40 homes and a hotel in Xinmo, a village in Sichuan province, at about 6am local time (2300 BST), the Mao county government said. Chinese state media announced on Saturday that more than 60 homes had been covered in mud and rubble as dawn broke in Xinmo, a remote village in north Sichuan.
Provincial officials said 141 people were missing and 1.6 kilometres (a mile) of road had been buried. The debris slid 800 metres (half a mile) down a steep slope to block a 2km stretch of river and 1.6km of road, according to the official state news agency, Xinhua. More than 1,000 workers were involved in the rescue effort, including more than a hundred medical staff.
Rescuers pulled out three people, two of whom survived, the official Sichuan Daily newspaper said. The paper also said a family of three, including a one-month-old, managed to escape as the landslide hit their house. Xinhua, quoting rescue headquarters, said 15 bodies had been retrieved from the debris by Saturday night. More than 120 people were believed to have been buried, it said. Geological experts at the site said the chances of them surviving were slim, Xinhua said.
It also blocked a 2km section of a river. Wang Yongbo, a local rescue official, told the state broadcaster CCTV an estimated 3m cubic metres (105m cubic feet) of earth and rock had fallen. The state broadcaster, CCTV, reported that by midday local time only three people had been pulled alive from the rubble – a couple and their two-month-old baby. Another child from the same family remained buried.
More than 400 people, including police, were involved in the search and rescue effort. CCTV showed them using diggers and ropes to try to dislodge large rocks. Photos from the official People’s Daily showed rescue efforts, which involved more than 400 people, continuing after nightfall using torches. It said rescuers were trying to reach two people they believe they had heard trapped beneath the rubble.
Mao county is home to about 110,000 people. Xinmo is known locally for tourism, but it is unclear whether any visitors might have been caught up in the landslide. State television reports showed villagers and rescuers scrambling over mounds of mud and rocks that had slid down the mountainside. Water thick with mud flowed over the site, submerging a car pushed from the road, while police and residents pulled on ropes to try to dislodge large boulders.
Police have closed roads in the county to all traffic except emergency services, the news agency said.
Wang Yongbo, a local rescue official, told CCTV an estimated 3m cubic metres (105m cubic feet) of earth and rock had fallen.
There is an extensive network of dams in the area, which is close to the region of Tibet, including two hydropower plants in Diexi town near the buried village. Heavy rain caused the landslide, the provincial department of land and resources said, according to Xinhua.
The area is prone to earthquakes, including one in 1933 that resulted in parts of Diexi town becoming submerged by a nearby lake, and an 8.0 magnitude tremor in central Sichuan’s Wenchuan county in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.