China rescuers comb sludge for mudslide survivors

ZHOUQU, China (Reuters) - Chinese rescuers armed with little more than shovels and hoes on Monday hunted for survivors of a huge mudslide, as relatives of the near 1,300 still missing trekked into the disaster zone to look for their loved ones.

Engineers were also blasting a barrier of rocks and mud in an effort to drain an unstable lake that formed upstream from the town of 40,000 residents in northwest China after a torrential downpour triggered landslides that choked up the Bailong River and killed at least 127 people.