Beijing, July 7
The death toll from Tuesday's landslide in northwest China's Gansu province has risen to five, with 12 people still missing, following the rescue of several others who remained trapped, local media reported.
The landslide occurred around 6:56 a.m. local time (10:56 p.m. GMT Monday) in Renzang village, under the administration of Longnan city, burying 33 people.
By 2:50 p.m. local time (6:50 a.m. GMT), rescue teams had located 21 of the trapped individuals, five of whom died after resuscitation attempts failed, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
A fire department official quoted by the agency stated that four excavators were working simultaneously to remove earth, although the teams switch to manual excavation when they detect signs of buried individuals.
A rescuer at the scene explained that the landslide occurred in a ravine area, near a slope with a stream running down it, and that the mass of earth that broke away formed a slope between 70 and 80 meters long.
According to this source, some of the trapped people managed to escape on their own, while the first thirteen rescued mostly had minor injuries.
One of those affected who managed to escape after the landslide told the newspaper that the group was heading to a wooded area to work on clearing dead trees and replanting saplings.
According to his testimony, the workers had been carrying out these tasks for about a week and had not noticed any prior anomalies on the slope.
The newspaper added that there had been no rain in the area before or after the landslide.
