Hopes low for missing landslide victims

  • 26/06/2017
Death toll at 25, more than 90 missing.
Rescue workers pulled bodies out of rock and mud as they searched for 93 people missing. Photo credit: Reuters

A couple and their two-month-old baby are the only survivors found so far in a massive landslide in Xinmo, in mountainous province Sichuan, on Saturday.

Rescue workers have pulled more bodies out of piles of rock and mud as they searched for 93 people missing a day after the landslide buried a mountain village.

Rescue worker Wu Youheng, who lives in a neighbouring village, said they weren't able to pull anyone out alive.

"We pulled out two people but they were already dead. I think it's too late, they're unlikely to find anyone else alive."

Mr Wu said that while the area was prone to landslides, the scale of the disaster was unprecedented.

Ten more bodies were recovered by early afternoon on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 25.

Geological experts have told the state-owned Xinhua news agency that chances of survival for the missing were slim.

At risk from more landslides in the area, a massive rescue effort involving more than 3000 people was underway, Xinhua news agency reported.

The names of the missing were posted on government websites, it said.

Reports of the landslide were largely absent from wider Chinese media apart from Xinhua, CCTV and party mouthpiece People's Daily.

Reuters