Landslide in China: 4 dead and 53 missing
Four people died, three were injured and 53 are missing, the Chinese civil affairs ministry said after a landslide in Sichuan on Thursday due to heavy rain in the southwestern province. China.
According to Chine Nouvelle, the accident occurred around 3 a.m. (21 p.m. Wednesday) in Kangding County, some 200 kilometers southwest of the regional capital Chengdu, in a mountainous inhabited area by Tibetan ethnic minorities in particular.
“The heavy rains yesterday and today caused the landslide. We have set up a control center which coordinates the rescue operations, ”explained a telephone manager of the Center for emergency situations in Garze, the prefecture.
The ministry also announced that 97 people were "stranded" after the "pouring of mud and stones". According to Chinese media, these trapped people are nevertheless safe. According to the ministry, all of these people were working on the construction of a dam for a hydroelectric plant.
In September 2008, at least 277 people died in a landslide in northern Shanxi caused by the collapse of a mine tailings reservoir. It had overflowed after torrential rains.
Sichuan, for its part, was hit by a disaster last year: in May 2008, an earthquake of magnitude 8,0 left nearly 87.000 dead and missing there.
Parisian news source