The Ministry of Emergency Management deployed hundreds of rescuers including firefighters following the landslide in a village in Junlian county. Two people were pulled out alive with injuries, and about 200 others were relocated, state broadcaster CCTV said. A manufacturing facility was also buried.
The disaster was caused by recent heavy rainfall and geological conditions, authorities said in a news conference on Sunday.
These factors transformed a landslide into a debris flow, resulting in an accumulation of debris stretching about 1.2 kilometers (0.7 miles) in length, with a total volume exceeding 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet). Authorities were still confirming the total number of missing.
A villager told BeijingNews that rocks were frequently seen rolling down the mountain since the second half of 2024, in some cases making sounds similar to firecrackers.
The villager said geologists had inspected the area late last year, the state-run newspaper reported. President Xi Jinping expressed his concern and urged authorities to make every effort to search for the missing people and minimize casualties, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
MNA/
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