Landslide victims remembered

FLAGS were flying at half mast and public entertainment cancelled yesterday as China marked a national day of mourning for the more than 1,200 people killed by massive mudslides in the north-west.

Thousands of residents and rescuers in Zhouqu, the remote mountain region in Gansu province flattened by last weekend’s landslides, stopped search efforts to take part in a ceremony to remember the victims, state television said. Sirens wailed as mourners, wearing white paper flowers and some still clutching their shovels, observed a three-minute silence.