85 missing as reinforcements join Shenzhen landslide rescue

The number of missing people in the landslide which hit an industrial park in the Guangming district in Shenzhen was revised to 85 from 91, said government authorities on Monday evening.

Including the armed forces, 2,906 rescuers are taking part in the search at the Hengtaiyu industrial park, with 406 special vehicles, 123 life detectors and 30 search dogs. Ten senior doctors from Guangzhou and Beijing are in Shenzhen to help. Only seven people have been rescued.

The disaster occurred at around 11:40 a.m. Sunday after the collapse of a huge pile of construction waste from a hill. Some 900 people were evacuated safely after the accident, but at least 16 people were hospitalized, including a seven-year-old. All are in a stable condition.

The landslide covered an area of 380,000 square meters in 10 meters of silt, said Liu Qingsheng, deputy mayor of Shenzhen.

The buried or damaged buildings include 14 factories, two offices, one canteen, three dormitories and 13 low-rise buildings.

A nearby section of a major West-to-East natural gas pipeline burst following the landslide, cutting off the gas supply to neighboring Hong Kong. PetroChina emptied the 400 meters of ruptured pipe and is considering a temporary replacement.

The evacuated people are in temporary settlements.

"We are providing food and drinks, mattresses and quilts to meet people's basic needs," said Chen Jun, a volunteer at Guangming District Sports Center.

DIFFICULT RESCUE

Workers are racing against time, as signs of life were detected under the mud debris on Monday. With five excavators, rescuers were close to reaching the first floor of a buried office building on Monday evening.

They used cutting machines to dismantle the concrete structure after a large pit was dug .

"The rescue is extremely difficult with mud and silt filling up the excavation," said Cui Bo, a Guangdong firefighter at the scene.

The State Council, China's cabinet, dispatched a team of senior officials and experts, led by State Councilor Wang Yong, to Shenzhen on Monday to oversee rescue work.

"The landslide mass is too loose and aquiferous," said Liu Guonan, a researcher with the China Academy of Railway Sciences, who participated in the rescue. It is the first time he has seen a landslide on such scale in his 30 years of work.

"When we organize excavation with large machinery, we have to consider both the possible harm to the buried people and also secondary collapse which threatens rescue workers," said Yang Shengjun, head of the Shenzhen Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.

SURVIVORS' MEMORY

"Seeing the mud approaching us like sea waves, I started running at once and dared not look back. I felt I would have been engulfed in it if I were just one second late," recalled a woman surnamed Wang.

Wang, who worked in a factory near the site, said the power was suddenly cut off in her factory at midday Sunday and then she heard her colleagues shouting "Run quickly!"

After running for four to five minutes, Wang said she made a quick glance back, seeing nothing but heavy dust. "One worker attempted to take away his motorcycle, only to be buried by the debris."

A villager surnamed Peng, whose father was injured and hospitalized, said her mother and brother remained missing. He said his father witnessed several people being buried by the landslide as he fled.

The landslide occurred to a quarry-turned dumping site of construction waste. Its exact cause is yet to be known.

"With the increasing size, the pile of waste formed an unstable body," said Peng Weiping, a geologist in Guangdong Province.

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.

According to the city's rule, regular safety checkups should be carried out on the facilities for construction waste by operators and government authorities.

The approval and management of the landslide-hit one is unclear.

Shenzhen authorities have launched a comprehensive safety overhaul of seven other construction waste dumps in the city.

Source: Xinhua