More Than 80 People Still Missing Following Chinese Landslide

THOUSANDS of rescuers combed through rubble and debris yesterday as the search went on for dozens of people still missing after Sunday’s landslide in the south China city of Shenzhen.

Shenzhen is a major manufacturing centre in Guangdong province across the border from Hong Kong that makes products used around the world ranging from cellphones to cars.

Six hectares of land were buried under as much as six metres of mud when the landslide inundated Shenzhen.

Shenzhen’s fire brigade said one building had collapsed but said the landslide had affected a large area on the northwestern outskirts of the city.

Heavy trucks have been transporting silt and waste for the past two years, causing noise and pollution with many complaints, said a worker in the industrial park who declined to be identified.

China’s year of man-made disasters began on New Year’s Eve when 36 revelers were killed in a stampede in Shanghai. The same report noted that authorities had been struggling to find space for construction soil waste since 2006. Almost twelve months later, a mountain of excavated soil and construction waste collapsed into…

The soil was allegedly illegally stored in heaps 100 meters (330 feet) high at an old quarry site and turned to mud during rain Sunday morning, the state-run Global Times reported.

Xinhua said more than 650,000 square feet was covered with at least 20 feet of mud, citing geological experts at the site.

The 2008 quake in Sichuan province, which left more than 87,000 people dead or missing, including many children crushed in collapsing schools, brought national attention to the shoddy construction standards of many buildings, derisively called “tofu buildings”.

About 900 people were evacuated from the industrial park as the landslide struck on Sunday.

Rescuers using cutting gear were close to reaching the first floor of a buried office building on Monday evening but were “racing against time”, the Government’s Xinhua news agency reported, without giving details of the life signs.

The China government officials ordered an investigation about the cause of the disaster.

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.

Residents near the area of the landslide told Chinese media they had regularly complained about the dump and told authorities it looked unstable.

“We are providing food and drinks, mattresses and quilts to meet people’s basic needs”, said Chen Jun, a volunteer at Guangming District Sports Centre.