Survivor found 67 hours after landslide in China

Wednesday, December 23, 2015, 1:14 PM - Dozens of people are still missing in the wake of a massive landslide that toppled buildings in a Chinese industrial park.

Early Wednesday morning, rescue workers found a survivor, 67 hours after the slide.

The survivor, Tian Zemaing, is said to be in stable condition at a local hospital.

He was found around 3 a.m. Wednesday with his leg crushed by concrete debris.

There is no confirmed figure for the number of casualties so far, the BBC reports, though at least four bodies have been recovered so far.

The number of missing peoples has been frequently revised down, the BBC adds, as more residents are continuously located. As of Wednesday morning, approximately 70 remain missing.

Authorities evacuated around 900 people from the industrial park in the major industrial centre of Shenzhen before the landslide occurred. More than 1,000 firefighters are combing the debris field for more survivors, with a combined total of 5,000 people working in rescue efforts.

Among the 33 buildings either knocked over or badly damaged were two workers' dorms and several factories. It also triggered an explosion at a natural gas pipeline.

The debris field is enormous, covering 380,000 square metres, and is up to 10 m deep in some places, according to the BBC.

"The rushing mud was only 10 metres away from me. As I ran out of the village with another youth, I heard a large explosion," The Guardian quotes one man who apparently escaped the landslide.

Authorities in Guangdong Province, where Shenzhen is located, said the landslide's source was a large pile of dirt and mud that had been excavated during construction in the area. The debris had been piled too steeply, raising the risk of collapse.

China's mountainous areas are prone to landslides during the country's prodigious rainy season. In November, at least 25 people were killed in a landslide in China's Zhejiang province.

However, if the latest landslide is regarded as more of an industrial accident, it is comparable to the disaster in Tianjin earlier in 2015, where a massive chemical explosion killed at least 160 people.

SOURCE: BBC News | The Guardian