Over 90 people are still unaccounted for in Sichuan after a massive landslide this weekend believed to have been triggered by heavy rainfall.
The earthen avalanche happened on Saturday morning (June 24), burying an estimated 40 homes and blocking 2 kilometers of the Songping River.
The dwellings were located in Xinmo village, Maoxian county, an area reportedly vulnerable to landslides, although the scale of this disaster has been described by a neighboring villager as “unprecedented.”
Over 3,000 rescuers are on the scene to aid in recovery operations, which have pulled at least 10 bodies from the rubble. Rescue dogs are also being utilized.
Hope is fading quickly amongst responders that anyone else will be found alive, although President Xi has advocated that emergency workers “spare no effort.”
A report by the South China Morning Post states that local authorities said 142 tourists were in the area prior to the landslide, although they’d vacated the area before the incident. Visitors to nearby Songping village were less fortunate, with over 150 tourists trapped there for a day before being rescued by military personnel, according to scol.com.cn.
On a positive note, 15 individuals initially reported missing in the landslide have been found safely away from the site of the calamity.
The Sichuan landslide happened almost a week to the day after torrential downpours triggered a (much smaller) landslide in western Beijing.
[Image by Getty via SCMP]
0 User Comments