Rescuers were yesterday searching for at least 91 missing people a day after a mountain of excavated soil and construction waste buried dozens of buildings when it swept through an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
China’s Xinhua news agency said the landslide buried or damaged 33 buildings in the industrial park in Shenzhen, a major manufacturing center in Guangdong Province, across the border from Hong Kong, which makes products used around the world, ranging from cellphones to cars.
Aerial images on the Chinese Ministry of Public Security Firefighting Bureau’s microblog showed the area awash in a sea of red mud, with several buildings either knocked on their side or collapsed entirely.
Posts on the microblog said mud had thoroughly infused many of the buildings, leaving the “room of survival extremely small.”
Seven people were rescued overnight and 13 were hospitalized, including three with life-threatening injuries, according to state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), which cited rescue leaders.
Persistent rain fell in the area yesterday, although it was not clear whether that was hampering rescue efforts.
Cellphone camera video footage of the Sunday disaster run by CCTV showed a massive wall of debris slamming into the buildings and sending up huge plumes of dust.
Details are beginning to emerge about the cause of the landslide, which authorities say covered an area of 100,000m2 with up to 6m of mud.
The Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources said the debris originated with a steep, man-made mountain of dirt, cement chunks and other construction waste that had been piled up against a 100m-high hill over the past two years.
Heavy rain in the region had saturated the soil, making it increasingly unstable and ultimately causing it to collapse with massive force.
“The pile was too big, the pile was too steep, leading to instability and collapse,” the Ministry of Land and Resources said, adding that the original, natural hill remained intact.
A man who runs a store selling cigarettes and alcohol less than 1km from the site said locals knew that the pile of soil was dangerous and feared something bad would happen.
“We heard a sound like an explosion and then all we saw was smoke,” said the man, surnamed Dong.
The Ministry of Land and Resources said it had dispatched additional personnel to help monitor the situation and guard against a second collapse.
The 33 damaged or collapsed buildings included 14 factories, two office buildings, three dormitories, 13 sheds or workshops and a cafeteria, Shenzhen Deputy Mayor Liu Qingsheng (劉慶生) said at a news conference.
Nearly 3,000 people were involved in the rescue efforts, aided by 151 cranes, backhoes and other construction equipment, along with rescue dogs and specialized life-detecting equipment.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2015/12/22/2003635366
