China landslide sparks gas explosion and leaves dozens missing
Nine hundred people evacuated before landslide struck Shenzhen, rupturing gas pipeline and leaving 59 missing
Rescuers work on the collapsed factory buildings brought down by a midday landslide in Shenzhen, China. Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA
Agence France-Presse in Beijing-Sunday 20 December 2015
A landslide which swept through an industrial park in southern China buried more than 20 buildings in a sea of mud, leaving 59 people missing and triggering a gas explosion, state media has reported.
Witnesses described a mass of red earth and mud racing towards the park in the city of Shenzhen on Sunday before burying or crushing homes and factories.
More than 1,500 emergency workers were involved in the rescue.
In its latest update on Sunday evening, the official Xinhua news agency reported that three people were injured and 59 were still missing. It was unclear whether there had been any fatalities.
The landslide ruptured a natural gas pipeline and triggered an explosion at the Hengtaiyu industrial park which was heard about 4km away, the agency said.
It said debris covered more than 10 hectares (25 acres).
About 900 people were moved out of harm’s way before the landslide struck late in the morning in the city bordering Hong Kong, according to the Shenzhen Evening News newspaper.
The landslide buried 22 residential and industrial buildings, including two worker dormitories, state broadcaster CCTV said. But it quoted Ren Jiguang, deputy chief of Shenzhen’s public security bureau, as saying most people had been evacuated beforehand.
The cause of the slide was unclear. A video posted by Xinhua showed a massive dust cloud and piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Rescue helicopters were in operation near the scene.
“I saw red earth and mud running towards the company building,” one local worker who was quoted by Xinhua said.
“Fortunately, our building was not hit, and all people in our company were safely evacuated,” the worker said, adding that a fishpond broke the full force of the landslide.
A woman surnamed Hu told the Shenzhen Evening News she saw her father buried by earth in his own truck.
“It’s been hours after he was buried, and we are quite worried,” she said.
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the prime minister, Li Keqiang, ordered immediate rescue efforts.
The state council, or cabinet, sent a working group to coordinate rescue efforts, which involved almost 100 fire engines plus sniffer dogs, drones and other equipment.
A landslide last month that engulfed 27 homes in rural Zhejiang province killed 38 people.
