At least 91 people were missing after a huge mound of mud and construction waste collapsed at a business park in southern China at the weekend, burying 33 buildings in the country’s latest industrial disaster.
Premier Li Keqiang ordered an official investigation into the landslide in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, which comes four months after huge chemical blasts at the northern port of Tianjin killed more than 160 people.
The mudslide smashed into multi-storey buildings at the Hengtaiyu industrial park in the city’s northwestern Guangming New District, toppling them in collisions that sent rivers of earth skyward.
Villager Peng Jinxin said the mud came like “huge waves”, as residents ran out of the way.
“At one point the running mud was only 10m away from me,” Peng said.
State television showed scenes of devastation, with crumpled buildings sticking up from heaps of brown mud, which stretched out across the edge of the industrial park.
The mud had covered an area of more than 380000m² and was 10m deep in parts, Shenzhen deputy mayor Liu Qingsheng said.
Almost 3000 rescuers were at the scene, Xinhua said, with sniffer dogs and drones.
The ministry of land resources blamed the landslide on a mountain of waste construction mud in the vicinity.
Provincial authorities sent a team to investigate and said the accumulation of a large amount of waste meant that mud was stacked too steep, “causing instability and collapse, resulting in the collapse of buildings”.
A nearby section of China’s major West-East natural gas pipeline owned by PetroChina also exploded, state television added. PetroChina wrote on its microblog the pipeline blast had hit at least one industrial user.
Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered provincial authorities to do everything possible to minimise casualties, treat the injured and comfort family members.
Fourteen factories, 13 low-rise buildings and three dormitories were among the buildings flattened. Xinhua news agency said 14 people had been rescued and more than 900 people had been evacuated from the site by Sunday evening.
Huge mudslide leaves 91 missing in China
Premier Li Keqiang ordered an official investigation into the landslide in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, which comes four months after huge chemical blasts at the northern port of Tianjin killed more than 160 people.
The mudslide smashed into multi-storey buildings at the Hengtaiyu industrial park in the city’s northwestern Guangming New District, toppling them in collisions that sent rivers of earth skyward.
Villager Peng Jinxin said the mud came like “huge waves”, as residents ran out of the way.
“At one point the running mud was only 10m away from me,” Peng said.
State television showed scenes of devastation, with crumpled buildings sticking up from heaps of brown mud, which stretched out across the edge of the industrial park.
The mud had covered an area of more than 380000m² and was 10m deep in parts, Shenzhen deputy mayor Liu Qingsheng said.
Almost 3000 rescuers were at the scene, Xinhua said, with sniffer dogs and drones.
The ministry of land resources blamed the landslide on a mountain of waste construction mud in the vicinity.
Provincial authorities sent a team to investigate and said the accumulation of a large amount of waste meant that mud was stacked too steep, “causing instability and collapse, resulting in the collapse of buildings”.
A nearby section of China’s major West-East natural gas pipeline owned by PetroChina also exploded, state television added. PetroChina wrote on its microblog the pipeline blast had hit at least one industrial user.
Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered provincial authorities to do everything possible to minimise casualties, treat the injured and comfort family members.
Fourteen factories, 13 low-rise buildings and three dormitories were among the buildings flattened. Xinhua news agency said 14 people had been rescued and more than 900 people had been evacuated from the site by Sunday evening.
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