A landslide in southwest China’s Sichuan province has left 14 people dead and five missing, the local government said.
The landslide occurred at 6 a.m. (2200 GMT Saturday) at a state-owned forestry station in Jingkouhe, near the city of Leshan, the local government said in an online statement.
“As of 3:30 p.m., remains of 14 people have been recovered and five are missing”. Authorities have dispatched more than 180 people, rescue and equipment to the site, the statement said.
Currently, the rescue operation is going on. The site is located in a mountainous area about 240 km (150 mi) south of the provincial capital, Chengdu.
Landslides are common in China’s rural and mountainous areas, especially during the rainy summer months. The area is home to about 40,000 people and is nestled between mountains and rivers. In 2017, several landslides occurred in this area. On that day, more than sixty houses had collapsed.
Also, there were landslides in this area during heavy rains in 2019. Occasional earthquakes are also experienced in this region. In 2008, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake left over 87,000 people dead, including 5,335 school students, and many others missing. In December, a gold mine collapsed in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Around 40 people were working underground there.
