BEIJING, July 17 (Reuters) – Eight people were killed and 34 others are still missing after a landslide in a county in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing on Friday, local government officials told a press conference.
In a late Friday directive, President Xi Jinping ordered search and rescue operations to be carried out for the missing and called for an investigation into the cause of the landslide.
• Preliminary verification indicated that a Pengshui county community worker spotted scattered falling rocks around 8 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) and issued an emergency warning.
• Authorities ordered an evacuation of more than 60 residents, but the landslide occurred during the evacuation at 9:08 a.m.
• The landslide has caused multiple residential buildings downhill to collapse, prompting the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents from nearby areas.
• As of Friday afternoon, 10 people had been injured, including two who were seriously injured and two in critical condition, local government told the press briefing.
• Aerial footage from CCTV showed rock and debris falling on a cluster of riverside residential buildings, while people could be seen fleeing with a thick plume of dust billowing behind them.
• It was not immediately clear what caused the landslide.
• A dashcam video posted on X, verified by Reuters, showed a section of hillside collapsing onto homes and businesses below, sending debris across the road and forcing passing cars and a motorcycle to stop.
• China’s Ministry of Emergency Management activated a level-two emergency response and dispatched a 100-member rescue team to the scene, the ministry said in a statement.
• Some 206 personnel and 49 vehicles from China’s fire and rescue force were sent to the site to assist in rescue efforts, the ministry said.
(Reporting by Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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