Rescue teams in southwestern China used explosives to blast through heavy boulders hampering efforts to reach 34 people reported missing for three days after a landslide during torrential rain in an area famed for natural beauty.
The landslide on Friday killed eight people in the county of Penghui, some 270km from Chongqing.
Yesterday’s blasting operation shattered a massive boulder in television images shown by state broadcaster CCTV, which added that the mission had entered a “deep rescue phase”, although it gave no immediate details.
The effort followed President Xi Jinping’s call for scientific search and rescue operations for the missing as well as a swift investigation into the cause of the landslide.
Authorities evacuated more than 1,100 people after the landslide in the county, home to about 500,000 people, where many communities cling to steep hillsides that hug the Wujian river.
In the aftermath, video clips and photographs showed a portion of the collapsed mountainside cascading into the river, cutting off the main street of the narrow hillside township.
Authorities have sent teams to investigate hidden geological dangers and monitor the risk of secondary disasters, official news agency Xinhua said on Saturday.
With heavy to torrential rain forecast through yesterday across multiple provinces, authorities have called for stronger safeguards in high-risk areas made vulnerable by abundant groundwater and intensive construction. — Reuters
