Rescuers hunt for 28 people still missing after a landslide in southwest China; 1 body recovered

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial drone photo shows the site of a landslide in Jinping Village, Junlian County in the city of Yibin, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday Feb. 8, 2025. (Zeng Li/Xinhua via AP)

BEIJING (AP) — Emergency teams in China’s southwestern Sichuan province battled against time Sunday to locate 28 people missing after a rain-triggered landslide killed one person and buried homes.

Nearly 1,000 personnel, including armed police, firefighters and medical professionals, continued to work in the rescue operation following the landslide in the village of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to locate any signs of life with the help of local officials who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

They rescued two injured people and evacuated about 360 other people after 10 houses and a manufacturing building were buried, CCTV reported.

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to recent heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these factors transformed a landslide into a debris flow, resulting in an accumulation of debris stretching about 1.2 kilometres (more than half a mile) in length, with a total volume exceeding 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet).

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the site to guide the rescue operation and visited the affected residents. He urged authorities to make every effort to search for the missing people, according to official news agency Xinhua.

Liu also noted the surrounding slopes still pose collapse risks, calling for scientific assessment to ensure the safety of the operation and prevent another disaster, Xinhua said.

China has allocated 80 million yuan (about US$11 million) to support disaster relief and recovery efforts.

Landslides, often caused by rain or unsafe construction work, are not uncommon in China. Last year, a landslide in a remote, mountainous part of China’s southwestern province of Yunnan killed dozens of people.

The Associated Press