Society

5 killed, 17 missing after landslide in S China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-10 09:10

QUANZHOU, Guangxi - Five people were killed and 17 others were still missing by early Tuesday morning after a quarry landslide in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rescuers confirmed.

A quarry in Luojiang village, Quanzhou county, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was hit by a landslide, May 9, 2011. Five people were killed, and 17 are missing. [Photo/Xinhua]

According to the rescuers, two people saved from the site were sent to hospital at around 2:00 pm Monday. One of them died later in hospital, and the other is out of critical conditions.

By wee hours of Tuesday, rescuers had retrieved four bodies at the landslide site, and 17 people were still missing.

At around 1:00 pm Monday, a landslide roared down rain-saturated hills and engulfed the makeshift dormitory for 20-odd workers at a quarry in Luojiang Village of Shuixiang Township, Quanzhou County.

According to He Qishi, deputy chief engineer of the region's general geological environment monitoring station, the landslide, caused by days of continuous heavy rainfalls, buried an area equivalent to two basketball fields, with a volume of 250,000-300,000 cubic meters and a thickness of five meters or so.