91 reported missing in China landslide

SHENZHEN—Some 91 people were reported missing on Monday after a huge landslide caused by illegal soil dumping buried more than 30 factory and residential buildings in a sea of mud.

It was China’s second industrial disaster in four months.

Witnesses of the landslide on Sunday described “huge waves” of red earth and mud racing towards an industrial park in the city of Shenzhen, burying or crushing homes and factories.

Drone footage showed chocolate-colored mud had plowed through and over buildings and tossed aside trucks like discarded toys. One weeping migrant worker told how he lost contact with 16 friends or family members after his home was buried.

The landslide covered an area of 380,000 square meters—about 60 football fields—in many areas more than 10 meters thick, said Liu Qingsheng, vice mayor of the city bordering Hong Kong.

There were 91 people missing as of 9 a.m. on Monday, according to Shenzhen Evening News, quoting officials from the city’s emergency office.

The landslide was caused by the improper storage of waste soil from construction sites, according to the official newspaper of the Ministry of Land and Resources.

Industrial accidents are common in China, with safety regulations often overlooked due to corruption. An explosion in August in the port city of Tianjin that killed nearly 200 people was blamed on improperly stored chemicals.

In Shenzhen, about 900 people were moved out of harm’s way before the landslide struck. Four people had been rescued, of whom three had minor injuries.

Rescue operations were slowed by numerous obstacles, including continued rain, low visibility overnight and mud, Ao Zhuoqian, a member of the city’s fire brigade, told Xinhua news agency.

Nearly 3,000 armed police and firefighters had been deployed to help with the rescue but “still had not made sizeable further progress,” a China National Radio report said.