Rescuers in southern China's hilly Yunnan province recovered nine bodies on Monday after a landslip buried 47 people in a rural village, official media reported. Two individuals were saved. Amid cold temperatures and snowfall, roughly 500 people had to be evacuated from the area by the evening.
Following the accident that occurred shortly before six in the morning in the village of Liangshui in the northeastern region of Yunnan, rescue workers kept searching for casualties who were buried in roughly eighteen dwellings, according to the Zhenxiong county publicity department.
According to state media, eight of the bodies were from the group that was initially buried by the landslip, but it is unclear where the ninth body was discovered. While survivors and rescuers battled through snow, icy roads, and below-freezing conditions predicted to last for at least the next three days, the cause of the landslip was not immediately determined.
A landslide in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province left at least two people dead and another 45 people buried, according to Chinese state media, as a cold wave blanketed much of the country. https://t.co/zeuB7jVzB9— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) January 22, 2024
The Cause of landslide
Many sections of China have seen heavy snowfall, which has disrupted transportation and put lives in danger. Over 1,000 people were stranded in a remote skiing area in northwest China for a week due to many avalanches caused by severe snowfall. Still, last Thursday, rescuers managed to evacuate the visitors. The avalanches closed highways, stranding visitors and inhabitants in a village in Altay prefecture in the Xinjiang area, near China's borders with Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
Landslides are widespread in China, often triggered by heavy rains or dangerous buildings. Last year, at least 70 individuals lost their lives in landslides, including over 50 at an open pit mine in China's Inner Mongolia province.
The governance stance on the disaster
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources implemented emergency reaction plans for geological disasters and dispatched a team of experts to the site. Wang Xiangxi, Minister of Emergency Management, has traveled to the landslip location to direct rescue operations, according to a ministry statement.
Just over a month had passed since China's worst earthquake in recent memory slammed the northwest in a remote area between the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, causing a landslip in Yunnan as well. The magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck on December 18 left at least 149 people dead, destroyed buildings, and caused severe mudslides that flooded two towns in the province of Qinghai.
Image Source: NBC News
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