BEIJING (AP) — A landslide in southwest China's mountainous Yunnan province buried 47 people, killed at least two, and displaced 200 others amid freezing and snowy conditions early Monday.
The disaster occurred just before 6 a.m. in Liangshui village in northeastern Yunnan province. Rescue efforts are underway to find victims buried in 18 separate houses, the Zhenxiong District Publicity Department said.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, two bodies were pulled from the rubble. The cause of the landslide was not immediately known, and survivors and rescue workers battled snow and freezing temperatures, which were forecast to last for at least the next three days.
Luo Dongmei, 35, was sleeping when the landslide hit, but he survived and was moved to a school building by local authorities.
“I was sleeping, but my brother knocked on the door and woke me up. They said there was a landslide and the bed was shaking, so they rushed upstairs and woke us up,” Luo said.
Luo, her husband and their three children, along with several other residents, have been served meals at the school, but are still waiting for blankets and other protection from the cold weather, she said.
Luo said she was unable to contact her sister and aunt, who live near the landslide site. “The only thing I can do is wait,” he said.
Last week, The Rescuers A remote ski area drove tourists away Dozens of avalanches in northwest China have trapped more than 1,000 people in a week due to heavy snowfall. Avalanches block roads in a village in Altai province in Xinjiang region, near China's borders with Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan.
Landslides, often triggered by rain or unsafe construction, are not uncommon in China. Including last year, 70 people died in landslides More than 50 people in an open pit mine In the Inner Mongolia region of China.
In total, natural disasters in China left 691 dead and missing and caused about 345 billion yuan ($48 billion) in direct economic losses last year, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Commission and Ministry of Emergency Management. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources enacted emergency response measures for geological disasters and dispatched a task force of experts to the site.
Emergency Management Minister Wang Xiangxi visited the landslide site to guide rescue efforts, the ministry said in a statement.
The landslide in Yunnan came a month after China's Strongest earthquake in years It struck northwest in the remote area between Gansu and Qinghai Province. The 6.2-magnitude earthquake on December 18 killed at least 149 people, leveled houses and triggered severe landslides that engulfed two villages in Qinghai province.
Nearly 1,000 people were injured and more than 14,000 homes were destroyed in China's worst earthquake in nine years.
