BEIJING – The death toll from a landslide in China’s Yunnan province rose to 25 on Tuesday afternoon as rescue workers battled subzero temperatures and snow to search for dozens of missing people.
State-run China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday that rescue teams worked overnight to create a deep mound at the site of a landslide in Zhenxiong County.
According to a report by The Cover, a local media outlet affiliated with the Sichuan Daily Newspaper Group, one rescue worker said large machinery could not be used because the ground was unstable.
“Once the excavations are lowered down, the top may continue to collapse. It will be difficult to conduct large-scale mechanical operations and rescues on site will also be very difficult,” the workers said in the report. That’s what it means.
At least 47 people from 18 households were missing after Monday’s landslide, CCTV said, adding that 20 of them were confirmed dead. A further 24 people are still missing, and three others have been found by rescue teams.
Two people were hospitalized with head and body injuries, the National Health Commission said.
The landslide struck two villages in the southwestern city of Zhaotong at around 5:51 a.m. (4:51 p.m. ET on Sunday), CCTV reported, plunging into brown mountain soil at the foot of a hill. covered the covered houses;
“The mountain collapsed, burying dozens of people,” a man surnamed Gu, who witnessed the landslide, told a state television station in neighboring Guizhou province. According to Gu, four of his relatives are buried under the rubble.
“They were all sleeping at home,” he said.
According to CCTV, more than 500 people were evacuated from their homes.
Officials said at a news conference Tuesday that the landslide occurred in a steep cliff area at the top of a mountain slope.