China landslide: Rescuers hunt for survivors in Shenzhen after giant mudslide

Michael Howie21 December 2015

Rescuers were today searching for at least 91 missing people a day after a massive landslide buried dozens of buildings in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Hundreds of rescue workers, police and special forces were at the scene helping with the operation.

State media quoted officials as saying 59 men and 32 women were missing and that “signs of life” had been detected at three separate locations.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the landslide buried or damaged 33 buildings in the industrial park.

Rescue workers on the site in China
Reuters

Aerial photos showed the area awash in a sea of red mud, with several buildings either knocked on their side or collapsed entirely.

Firefighters reported that mud had swept through the buildings, leaving the “room of survival extremely small.”

Just seven people were rescued overnight and 13 were hospitalised, including three with life-threatening injuries, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.

Mobile phone camera video of yesterday’s disaster showed the massive wall of debris slamming into the buildings and sending up huge plumes of dust.

Details began to emerge about the cause of the landslide, which authorities said covered an area of 100,000 square metres with up to six metres of mud.

Officials say there are still signs of life despite the magnitude of the landslide
AP

The Ministry of Land and Resources said the debris originated with a steep, man-made mountain of dirt, cement chunks and other construction waste that had been piled up against a 100-metre-high hill over the past two years.

Heavy rains in the region had saturated the soil, making it increasingly unstable and ultimately causing it to collapse.

Shenzhen is a major manufacturing centre in Guangdong province across the border from Hong Kong that makes products used around the world ranging from cellphones to cars.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT