BEIJING – Fifty-nine people are missing in a landslide that struck an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.Xinhua had previously reported 41 people missing in the landslide that buried 33 residential and industrial buildings in the Liuxi industrial park, later revising those figures downward to 27, but then upping the total to 59. Three other people were slightly injured.
At least 900 local residents were evacuated, the news agency said.
The landslide was followed by a gas pipeline explosion that scattered debris over some 100,000 square meters (about 25 acres), Xinhua said.
“I saw a bunch of red earth and mud moving toward the (buildings),” one of the industrial park employees told Xinhua.
Another eyewitness told the local daily Shenzhen Evening News that he saw the van his father was driving buried by the earth and mud and no sign has been found of either the vehicle or his father.
More than 1,500 emergency workers are participating in rescue operations, looking for survivors among the debris, with the help of some 100 fire trucks, 4 drones and 13 search dogs, although they are being hampered by rain, mud and poor night visibility.
Emergency officials said that possible signs of life had been detected in three spots underneath the debris.
Among the buildings buried in the tragedy were two dormitories for workers at the industrial park, the state-run CCTV television network reported.
Ren Jiguang, the assistant director of the Shenzhen public safety office, told CCTV that most of the evacuated people had been transferred to safe areas.
The Beijing Youth Daily newspaper quoted a local resident who said that the landslide was caused by construction activity and that the earth that gave way had been accumulating at the site over the past two years.
Shenzhen is a prosperous industrial city with four border crossing points providing access to neighboring Hong Kong.
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