Rescuers told to evacuate due to risk of second landslide in China
BEIJING: Rescuers searching for more than 90 people missing following a huge landslide in south-west China were ordered to evacuate yesterday due to the risk of another collapse, state media reported.
Thousands of emergency workers have been digging through rocks and earth since Saturday when a landslide entombed 62 homes in Xinmo, a mountain village in Sichuan province.
At least 10 people have been confirmed dead and 93 are still missing after heavy rain brought down a side of the mountain.
Only three survivors - a couple and their one-month-old baby - have been found, reported AFP.
The onslaught of rocks struck the once-picturesque village in the early morning when most people would have been inside their homes.
Some 3,000 workers were taking part in the search, while excavators and bulldozers were being used to clear debris at the base of the slope.
The Sichuan provincial work safety bureau ordered rescue workers to be evacuated from the disaster zone yesterday morning after monitoring equipment picked up "moving and deformation of the hillside", said the official Xinhua news agency.
Xinhua added that there were "risks of a secondary landslide".
Singapore's President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have written to China's President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang respectively to convey their condolences, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. - AFP
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