China Landslide in Chongqing Kills at Least 8, Leaves 34 Missing as Rescuers Dig Through 18,000 Cubic Meters of Rock

Rescuers Dig Through Rock and Mud as Death Toll Stands at Eight

A landslide tore through Pengshui County on the outskirts of Chongqing municipality Friday morning, burying more than 10 residential buildings and killing at least eight people, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Thirty-four people remain missing as of Saturday.

The slide hit around 9:08 a.m. local time Friday, according to the Associated Press. Massive amounts of rock and soil came down a slope near a stretch of the Wujiang River, an area cut through with karst mountains and small terraced towns.

Pengshui County Mayor Ren Xujiang said 18 people trapped in the debris were rescued, and eight of those were pronounced dead, according to Channel NewsAsia. The Associated Press, reporting for PBS and WDRB, put the number rescued from the debris at 10, including two seriously injured. More than 1,100 residents have been evacuated.

The Scale of the Debris

Wang Chuanjun, head of Planning and Natural Resources in Pengshui County, told a Friday news conference the landslide involved roughly 18,000 cubic meters of rock and debris. The single largest boulder measured about 3,000 cubic meters, he said, according to both the New York Post and the Associated Press. Photos and video from the scene showed one fallen rock larger than a multistory building, with a car half-buried near a damaged structure and the top of at least one building crushed.

Two buildings estimated at five and 15 stories were damaged but remained standing, according to PBS's account of AP reporting.

Rain Made Things Worse

CCTV reported persistent rain fell on Pengshui from Friday night into Saturday morning, with nearly 8 inches, 19.2 centimeters, recorded at a local weather station. That rain complicated an already dangerous rescue operation, the broadcaster said.

As the rain eased Saturday, rescue teams moved in to inspect collapsed buildings and riverbank areas on the ground. More than 800 rescuers were deployed to the site, according to a local government statement cited by the Associated Press.

The search itself is being done in stages because of the risk the rock pile poses to rescuers. Teams are working one side of the debris field first, CCTV reported, and will only later search beneath the boulders, where instability could cause further slides and injure rescue workers. Once the surrounding area has been cleared, officers plan to drill into the boulders and use explosives to break them apart, according to CCTV's reporting relayed by both the New York Post and WDRB.

Authorities also cut water, electricity and gas supplies within a 1-kilometer radius of the slide site to prevent additional disruptions, PBS reported, citing the Associated Press.

Government Response and Xi's Order

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on authorities to determine the cause of the disaster and to identify and eliminate other geological hazards, according to Channel NewsAsia and PBS. Xi's instruction raises an unresolved question hanging over the disaster: whether the slope's collapse was purely a function of extreme rainfall or whether construction, mining, or land-use decisions in the area made the hillside more unstable. No official cause had been announced as of Saturday.

China's National Development and Reform Commission allocated 30 million yuan, about $4.4 million, to restore infrastructure and public services in the area, according to the Associated Press. Separately, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Emergency Management said the government allocated 50 million yuan, roughly $7.36 million, in natural disaster relief funds to support the rescue effort and assist affected residents, according to Channel NewsAsia. Authorities have also shipped more than 8,000 disaster relief items to Chongqing, including tents, folding beds and family emergency kits, PBS reported.

Part of a Pattern

Channel NewsAsia noted the Chongqing slide comes less than two weeks after a separate landslide in northwestern Gansu province buried 33 people, killing 21 of them. Two major landslides in a matter of weeks raise a question for Chinese disaster-management officials: whether the country's rural, mountainous regions need broader geological risk mapping and earlier evacuation triggers during heavy rain events, something Xi's own directive to identify hazards implicitly acknowledges.

Pengshui County sits in the southeastern part of Chongqing municipality, bordering Hubei and Guizhou provinces. As of Saturday, the search for the 34 missing continues, with rescuers still working to clear ground-level debris before attempting to breach the largest boulders.