China landslide death toll hits 700 as flooding feared

ENGINEERS battled yesterday to drain an unstable lake created by China’s deadliest landslide in decades, fearing it could burst and swamp devastated areas where people are still hunting for survivors.

At least 702 people died in north-western Gansu province when a torrent of mud and rocks engulfed swathes of the small town of Zhouqu at the weekend, and another 1,042 are missing, an emergency relief official, Tian Baozhong said.

Officials have warned for years that heavy tree- felling and rapid hydro development were making the mountain area around Zhouqu more vulnerable to land slips, government reports show.

Locals kept waiting and weeping beside buried and destroyed homes where their relatives and friends were trapped, hoping at least to find their remains.

“My niece is buried under there. She is a high school student, such a good girl,” said 42-year- old Yin Linfeng, who survived the landslide because she had been away.

“She was buried in the rubble when she was looking after my house... I will not give up. I want to see her body if she is dead. It was all my fault.”

A 52-year-old Tibetan man was pulled from a collapsed apartment yesterday morning, only the second person found alive since Sunday in a town buried in sludge up to seven metres deep in places.

Search efforts were also taking a toll on survivors, medics said.

“There are... people who have spent several days looking for their family members without any food or water. Some of them suffered from hypoglycaemia [a sharp fall in blood sugar levels], some fainted, some had a heat stroke,” said military doctor Wang Puxuan.

The landslide was the worst to hit China in six decades, state media said, and the most deadly single incident in a year of heavy flooding that had already killed nearly 1,500.

Five people died in a landslide in north-west Shaanxi province after heavy rains on Monday night, the Xinhua news agency said.

In north-east Jilin province, more than 2,000 rescuers sought to save 18 miners trapped down a coal mine that flooded after heavy rains.

There is no sign of a let-up in the onslaught, with tropical storm Dianmu heading for northern China, and expected to bring strong rains as far away as the landslide area.

Fearing new downpours, local officials focussed on preventing a catastrophic overflow of the brimming new lake in the centre of Zhouqu.

Government reports show officials have long been warning of the risks.

One government report last year called the Bailong River a “high-occurrence disaster zone for landslides”.

Officials are focussing on the loose dam thrown down by the landslide.

Water levels behind the barrier fell slightly after controlled explosions created a channel to funnel some off, and on Tuesday occasional blasts echoed around Zhouqu.

“Our county is surrounded by mountains, the barrier lake has clogged the river, and once water comes from upstream, we will definitely be flooded,” said He Dong, 36, a mudslide survivor. “This is a great danger to us.”

Thousands of people have already been evacuated from villages downstream as a precaution.