Society

23 killed in Sichuan landslide

By Huang Zhiling (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-16 08:52

CHENGDU - A landslide caused by heavy rainfall killed 23 people and injured seven others in Sichuan province in the early hours on Tuesday.

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The victims were working on the construction of the Jinping Power Station in Pengta township in Kangding, the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture.

They were all sleeping when the landslide hit at about 1:25 am.

When part of the mountain collapsed, it triggered a flow of 40,000 cubic meters of mud with a height of nearly 200 meters, burying the sheds where 34 workers stayed by the Jintang River.

Only four workers were unharmed in the incident.

The landslide blocked the river for two hours before the water broke the natural dam of mud and rocks, said a worker surnamed Wang from Guizhou province.

Wang, one of the four workers who escaped unscathed, told China Daily the survivors were lucky to be in a shed several steps away from where their colleagues were killed.

"We heard a deafening sound before we found most of the sheds had been buried," she said.

Rescuers found the bodies of 22 victims before noon. Another worker died on the way to the hospital.

The seven injured workers were in stable conditions, said Mou Guangrong, an information officer with the Ganzi government.

Most of the workers at the construction site were from Chongqing municipality and Guizhou province, which neighbors Sichuan.

Officials with the Kangding county government have informed relatives about the situation and will discuss the terms of compensation soon, said Mou.