2024-01-22 03:40:12
A landslide buried dozens of people in a remote, mountainous location in southwest China on Monday, state media said, adding that eight bodies have already been found.
The tragedy unfolded at 5:51 a.m. (9:51 p.m. GMT Sunday) in the village of Liangshui, located in Yunnan province, burying a total of 47 people, the Xinhua news agency initially reported.
“More than 200 residents were urgently evacuated, 10 excavators, 33 fire trucks and more than 200 rescuers were mobilized for search operations,” said public television CCTV.
A video published by New China shows around ten firefighters in orange suits and helmets advancing on what appear to be collapsed concrete blocks and other debris.
Images broadcast by CCTV show a mountain village covered in snow and with houses partly buried by the landslide.
According to the latest report published at the very end of the afternoon, “eight missing people were found and they showed no signs of life,” the channel said, without specifying the number of people remaining missing.
“All they can”
A resident told Beijing News (Xinjingbao) that she was sleeping when the disaster struck and parts of the ceiling of her house fell on her.
“At first I thought it was an earthquake. I then realized that it was the mountain that was collapsing,” another resident told the daily.
The scene of the tragedy is located about 1,600 kilometers southwest of Shanghai as the crow flies and some 350 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital Kunming.
Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered rescue workers to “do everything possible to limit the number of casualties,” according to instructions reported by CCTV.
“It is appropriate to carry out the work of comforting the families of the victims and resettling those affected,” he stressed.
Yunnan is a mountainous province, populated by many ethnic groups and which is still one of the poorest in China.
Freezing temperatures
According to the Chinese meteorological services, temperatures in the canton of Zhenxiong, where the tragedy took place, are currently hovering around 0°C during the day and falling to -4°C during the night.
Landslides occur regularly in mountainous southwest China, especially after rainfall. No official reason has yet been given for Monday’s tragedy.
In September, storms in the Guangxi region (south) caused a landslide in a mountainous area, which killed at least seven people, according to local press.
Around twenty people died last August after a landslide following a flash flood in a village near the large city of Xi’an (north).
In June 2023, a landslide in the Sichuan province (southwest), also isolated and mountainous, killed 19 people.
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