Emergency teams in China’s southwestern Sichuan province searched frantically on Sunday for 28 people missing after heavy rain triggered a landslide.
So far one person is known to have died, and several houses have been buried under the earth. The landslide was about 1.2 kilometres in length and took with it about 100,000 cubic metres of earth and debris.
Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed police, firefighters and medical professionals, were involved in trying to locate the 28 missing people in the village of Jinping in Junlian county. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to locate any signs of life with the help of local officials who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.
They rescued two injured people and evacuated about 360 other people after 10 houses and a manufacturing building were buried, CCTV reported.
At a news conference on Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to recent heavy rainfall and local geological conditions.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the site to guide the rescue operation and visited the affected residents. He urged authorities to make every effort to search for the missing people, according to official news agency Xinhua.
Liu also noted the surrounding slopes still pose collapse risks, calling for scientific assessment to ensure the safety of the operation and prevent another disaster, Xinhua said.
China has allocated 10.8 million euros to support disaster relief and recovery efforts.
Landslides, often caused by rain or unsafe construction work, are not uncommon in China. Last year, a landslide in a remote, mountainous part of China’s southwestern province of Yunnan killed dozens of people.
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