A landslide in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality on July 17 killed at least eight people and left 34 missing. Residents interviewed by The Epoch Times, however, said the number of people trapped could be significantly higher, estimating that more than a dozen residential buildings were buried.
The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal from the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Witnesses also disputed online rumors that a fireworks warehouse explosion triggered the landslide.
Witness Says Hillside Collapsed Within Minutes
The landslide struck at 9:08 a.m. near Wujiang Third Bridge in Pengshui County, burying residential buildings and a major roadway.
A local resident told The Epoch Times that he witnessed the entire collapse.
He said cracks first appeared on the hillside before the entire slope gave way, causing buildings below to collapse one after another.
“There was no time to run,” the resident said. “The whole thing happened in about one or two minutes.”
The resident said he was not affected because he lived across from the disaster site, but he said the landslide buried an entire residential area.
“Thirteen buildings collapsed,” he said. “People were living in all of them. Some managed to escape, but many didn’t.”
Images circulating online after the disaster appear to show an entire block of buildings reduced to rubble.
The resident said most of the structures were privately built five- or six-story apartment buildings that had been rented out to tenants.
Because the collapse occurred during the morning rush, he said, the area was also crowded with shoppers, commuters, pedestrians, and vehicles.
“If you count the residents, shop owners, people on the street, and passing cars, there had to be well over a hundred people there,” the resident said. “But the authorities won’t report that many.”
A second local resident gave a similar estimate.
“More than a dozen buildings collapsed,” he said. ”They were all occupied. I think more than a hundred people were buried.”
Authorities said heavy rain continued from the evening of July 17 through the morning of July 18, with some locations receiving more than 192 millimeters (about 7.6 inches) of rainfall over 24 hours, complicating rescue efforts, according to Chinese state media China Central Television.
Police Target Posts About Explosion
According to state media Xinhua, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang issued instructions following the disaster, while Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing traveled to the scene to oversee rescue operations.
On July 18, Chongqing police announced three cases involving what they described as “online rumors” related to the disaster, urging internet users not to “spread or believe rumors,” according to Xinhua.
Police said two residents had posted online, claiming that a fireworks warehouse exploded before the landslide. Authorities said the pair were reprimanded and ordered to delete their posts.
The first resident disputed that sequence of events.
He said the landslide crushed a local fireworks warehouse, triggering the explosion heard by residents.
“The collapsing buildings pressed into the fireworks warehouse,” he said. “The explosion came from the warehouse after the landslide—not the other way around.”
The Epoch Times was unable to independently verify these accounts.
