China landslide gives up 10 more of its dead
Hopes for survivors fade as toll hits 25 in Sichuan county
MAO COUNTY, CHINA // Rescue rs in China pulled more bodies from rubble and mud yesterday as they searched for 93 people missing a day after a landslide buried a village.
A couple and their two-monthold baby were the only survivors found in the rubble hours after the landslip crashed into the mountain village of Xinmo, in the south-west province of Sichuan on Saturday morning.
Authorities reduced the number of missing after confirming the safety of 15 people, said the official microblog for Xinmo’s propaganda department.
Ten more bodies were recovered by early afternoon yesterday, bringing the death toll to 25, the microblog said.
Geological experts said that chances of survival for the missing were slim, state-owned Xinhua news agency reported.
“We weren’t able to pull anyone out alive,” said Wu Youheng, who lives in a neighbouring village and helped with rescue work on Saturday.
“We pulled out two people, but they were already dead. I think it’s too late, they’re unlikely to find anyone else alive.”
Mr Wu said that the area was prone to landslides but the scale of Saturday’s slip was unprecedented. His wife, Zhang Xiaohong, said they often slept in other villages because of fear of landslides, but could not afford to move to the safer capital of Mao county, where Xinmo is.
At risk from more landslides in the area, a rescue effort involving more than 3,000 people was under way, Xinhua said.
State broadcaster China Central Television showed images of excavators removing rubble from a hillside. Heavy rain triggered the landslide, authorities said, although further light showers expected yesterday and today were not expected to affect search efforts.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said the UN was prepared to offer any support needed. Sichuan is prone to earthquakes, including a 8.0- magnitude tremor in the province’s central Wenchuan county in 2008, which killed 70,000 people.