A landslide buried 47 people on the morning of Monday January 22 in a remote and mountainous location in Yunnan province, in southwest China, state media said, without announcing any deaths in the area. 'immediate.
The tragedy took place at 5:51 a.m. (9:51 p.m. GMT Sunday) in Liangshui village, located in Zhenxiong county, and "47 people from 18 households were buried," the news agency said. New China.
“More than 200 residents were urgently evacuated, ten excavators, 33 fire trucks and more than 200 rescuers were mobilized for search operations,” said public television CCTV.
A video published by New China shows around ten firefighters in orange suits and helmets advancing on what appear to be collapsed concrete blocks and other debris.
Images posted by users of the Chinese social network Douyin show a mountain village covered in snow and with houses partly buried by what appears to be a landslide.
Frequent landslides
Yunnan is a mountainous province, populated by many ethnic groups and which is still one of the poorest in China.
The scene of the tragedy is located about 1,600 kilometers southwest of Shanghai as the crow flies and some 350 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital Kunming.
According to Chinese weather services, temperatures in Zhenxiong County are currently hovering around 0 degrees during the day and dropping to -4 degrees at night.
Landslides occur regularly in mountainous southwest China, especially after rainfall.
No reason has yet been given for Monday's tragedy.
In September, storms in the Guangxi region (south) caused a landslide in a mountainous area, which killed at least seven people, according to local press.
Around twenty people died last August after a landslide following a flash flood in a village near the large city of Xi'an (north).
With AFP
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