China landslide: Death toll rises to 11, rescuers search for trapped in rubble

The death toll from a landslide in China's southwestern province of Yunnan province rose to 11 on Tuesday from eight as rescue workers battled extreme cold wave conditions and freezing temperatures amid snow to locate and rescue the several dozen buried people, news agency Reuters reported.

Rescuers worked through the night sifting deep mounds of earth at the site of the landslide in Zhenxiong County, the news agency said citing the state-owned China Central Television (CCTV) on Tuesday.

Over 1,000 rescue workers equipped with 45 rescue dogs and 120 vehicles, including excavators, loaders and transport vehicles, were carrying out search and rescue work at the site. As many as 33 firefighting vehicles and 10 loading machines were also mobilised to search for the missing. Over 200 tents, 400 quilts, 600 cotton coats and 14 sets of emergency lighting equipment were also provided.

The rescuers were unable to use large machines for the evacuation process due to the unstable soil in the terrain.

"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.

Another two people were hospitalized for head and body injuries, the national health commission said.

The landslide struck a remote and mountainous part in two villages in Zhaotong city at 05:51 local time (21:51 GMT) on Monday, trapping at least 47 people from 18 households. Eight of the missing were found dead on Monday, according to Zhaotong Daily, a local state-owned media outlet.

"The mountain just collapsed, dozens were buried," a man surnamed Gu, who witnessed the landslide, told the media outlet adding that four of his relatives were buried under the rubble.

More than 500 people were evacuated from their homes and nearly 1,000 rescue workers were dispatched to the site.

Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping has ordered an "all-out" rescue in the area which is experiencing sub-zero temperatures. The government has allocated disaster relief funds totalling 50 million yuan (about USD 7 million) to support disaster relief and emergency rescue work.

The cause of the landslide has remined unclear, but the remote, mountainous region is prone to them. According to a preliminary investigation by an expert group, the landslide was triggered by the collapse of a steep cliff-top area measuring almost 100 metres in width and 60 metres in height, the report said.

The Ministry of Emergency Management has upgraded the emergency response level to the second-highest level from the Level-III emergency response for disaster relief activated by the Provincial Commission for Disaster Reduction immediately after the landslide.

Video clips shared on social media showed rescuers walking on piles of rubble against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains.

(With inputs from Reuters, AP)

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