8 dead in China as landslide buries mountain village
- More than a dozen homes were in the disaster’s path as it struck on Monday morning, state media report
- Relief operation is under way in freezing conditions after a night of heavy snow in the area
The death toll from a massive mountain landslide in southwest China stood at eight on Monday as emergency workers combed through the remains of a buried village in freezing temperatures.
Dozens of villagers from Liangshui in Zhenxiong county, Yunnan province, were trapped when their homes were engulfed by the landslide at 5.51am.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that 18 homes were in the disaster’s path, 47 were missing and more than 500 people had been evacuated from the village.
More than 300 rescue personnel and over 50 emergency units, including fire trucks and loaders, were deploy to locate the missing.
Some of the houses in the coal mining community were on the steep terrain, while others were located at the foot of the mountain.
Heavy snow fell in the area on Sunday night, with continued falls on Monday, CCTV reported. Temperatures were expected to remain at around freezing, it said.
Yunnan governor Wang Yubo was leading a working group to the scene, the official Yunnan Daily newspaper reported.
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President Xi Jinping has called for an “all-out” effort to find the missing and sent a delegation led by Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing to the scene, Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily reported.
“[We should] promptly organise rescue teams, make all-out efforts to search for missing individuals, and minimise casualties to the greatest extent possible,” Xi said, according to the report.
Xi called on cadres to be alert for other natural disaster risks and hidden dangers “to effectively ensure the safety of people’s lives and property” as a result of the wave of cold weather that has swept across southern China just three weeks before the Lunar New Year.
People’s Daily also reported that Premier Li Qiang ordered an all-out rescue effort in Liangshui and stressed the need to maintain social stability.
“It is necessary to promptly evacuate the threatened population, handle resettlement properly, effectively ensure the safety of people’s lives and property, and maintain overall social stability,” he said.
The ministries of finance and emergency management approved 50 million yuan (US$7 million) in disaster relief funds for rescue and relocation efforts, housing repairs and risk detection.
Li also called for an investigation into the geological risks of the surrounding area to prevent secondary disasters, the People’s Daily report said.
Zhenxiong county just managed to reach the criteria in 2020 to drop its “poverty stricken” status as part of Xi’s drive to alleviate hardship in the poorest parts of the country.
It is situated in Yunnan’s northeast, at the junction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Yunnan is also on the borders of Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar and is known as one of China’s most ethnically diverse areas.
It has also made headlines because of its frequent natural disasters. These have included a severe drought and subsequent power rationing in 2022, as well as a deadly earthquake in 2014, which killed 617 people.
