Landslide feared to have killed nearly 100

AT LEAST 96 people were still missing yesterday, more than a day after a huge landslide buried a village in China.

More than 2,500 rescuers were called in to dig through the rubble of Xinmo village in Sichuan province, where at least 10 people were killed in the disaster on Saturday morning.

As of last night, only a couple and their month-old baby had been pulled alive from the rubble, raising fears that few others had survived.

The landslide carried enough earth and rock to fill the equivalent of more than 7,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools when it slid down from steep mountains.

“The houses were shaking, as if there were an earthquake,” said Tang Hua, a 38-year-old woman from a nearby village.

“We rushed out and saw massive smoke. With a thundering sound, the smoke suddenly lifted. We realised it was a landslide.

“As we ran for safety, we looked this way and saw the village flattened. The whole village is done for,” she added.

He Siming, a scientist, told the staterun Beijing News that a 2008 quake could have done structural damage to the mountains flanking the village. He said the rain could have been the cause of the landslide.