China Landslide Toll Hits 20 Amidst Frigid Conditions and Ongoing Rescue Efforts
As rescue workers battled freezing temperatures and snow to locate dozens of missing people, the death toll from a landslide in China's Yunnan province has risen to 20.
The report by the National health commission added that at least 47 people from 18 households are reported missing, confirming the death of 20. Another 24 are still missing and three other people had been accounted for by the rescue team. Two people were hospitalized for head and body injuries.
Rescuers worked through the night sifting deep mounds of earth at the site of the landslide in Zhenxiong County, state-owned China Central Television (CCTV).
According to a report from local media outlet The Cover, owned by the Sichuan Daily Newspaper Press Group, large machines cannot be used due to the unstable soil.
“If the excavation is unloaded below, the top may continue to collapse. It is difficult to carry out large-scale mechanical operations, and it is very difficult to rescue on site,” the worker was quoted as saying in the report.
“The mountain just collapsed, dozens were buried,” a man surnamed Gu, who witnessed the landslide, told the state-owned TV station for the neighboring province of Guizhou. Gu said four of his relatives were buried under the rubble.
“They were all sleeping in their homes,” he said.
More than 500 people were evacuated from their homes.
Officials told a news conference on Tuesday the landslide was triggered at a steep cliff area at the top of a mountain slope.
