91 missing from landslide that buries buildings in China

This evening buildings in Shenzhen have been lit up to show messages of solidarity for the victims of the landslide and those involved in the rescue operations.

Evacuees rest in a shelter set up at a gymnasium near the industrial park hit by a landslide in Shenzhen.

The landslide has blanketed a vast area of 380,000 sq m (455,000 sq yards)covering it with up to 10m (32ft) of mud, Shenzhen’s emergency management office said on its official micro blog.

The disaster occurred at around 11:40 a.m. Sunday after the collapse of a huge pile of construction waste from a hill. Almost twelve months later, a mountain of excavated soil and construction waste collapsed into…

Locals told the media that they had long seen the pile of construction waste as a danger.

Buildings in an industrial district in Shenzhen in southern China lie in ruins after a major landslide.

Details are beginning to emerge about the cause of the landslide, which authorities say covered an area of 100,000 square metres (one million square feet) with up to six metres (20ft) of mud.

Seven people have been rescued, with none suffering life-threatening injuries. No deaths were reported so far.

Another resident said there was a “loud explosion” when the landslide struck.

Human error has been suspected or confirmed in all three previous disasters, pointing to an often callous attitude toward safety in China despite the threat of harsh penalties. The accumulation of a large amount of waste meant that mud was stacked too steep, “causing instability and collapse, resulting in the collapse of buildings”, a report said.

Fan Xiao, a senior engineer at the government-linked Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, said such risks from man-made mountains were prevalent nationwide, especially as China also has many slag heaps from the mining industry.

Some residents blamed government negligence.

After running for four or five minutes, she said she glanced back, but saw nothing but thick dust.

Chen’s neighbor, Yi Jimin, said the disaster wasn’t an act of nature.

Witnesses described a mass of red earth and mud racing towards the park in the city of Shenzhen in “huge waves” before burying or crushing homes and factories, twisting some of them into grotesque shapes, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Dozens of people are missing, and an official microblog said survival possibilities in the collapsed buildings were small.

A villager surnamed Peng, whose father was injured and hospitalized, said her mother and brother remained missing.

“It’s unimaginable because I live near here but at the time I didn’t hear it happening”, he said.

“We didn’t realise this could happen”.