A landslide in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province has left dozens of people missing, while hundreds more have been forced to evacuate. The disaster struck on Jan. 22 in the village of Liangshui near the town of Tangfang in Zhenxiong County.
China’s CCTV state television quoted a local official as saying that the death toll had risen to 11 by the evening.
At least 50 people who were buried in some 18 separate houses remained unaccounted for. The bodies of nine victims have already been recovered, although the freezing temperatures in the region are likely to hamper efforts to find survivors.
Information relating to disasters in China is often suppressed or altered to suit the Chinese communist regime’s narratives, such that none of the reported information could be independently verified, while the number of casualties could be much higher.
The landslide follows a powerful earthquake that struck China’s northwest in a remote region between Gansu and Qinghai provinces last month, killing nearly 150 people.
Yunnan Province is currently experiencing extreme weather conditions, with temperatures at or below freezing, China’s National Meteorological Center reported.
Landslides are common in China’s southwestern region because of the area’s humid and rainy climate. Areas where masses of land were shifted as a result of agriculture or mining are particularly affected. Other susceptible areas include deforested regions and slopes around engineering projects.
