BEIJING: Rescue teams in southwestern China used explosives on Monday to blast through heavy boulders hampering efforts to reach 34 people reported missing for three days after a landslide during torrential rain in an area famed for natural beauty.
China is one of the most landslide-prone countries in the world, and eight died in Friday’s disaster in the county of Penghui some 270 km (168 miles) from the high-rise urban center of the sprawling municipality of Chongqing.
Monday’s blasting operation shattered a massive boulder in television images shown by state broadcaster CCTV, which added that the mission had entered a “deep rescue phase,” although it gave no immediate details.
The effort followed President Xi Jinping’s call for scientific search and rescue operations for the missing as well as a swift investigation into the cause of the landslide.
Authorities evacuated more than 1,100 people after the landslide in the county home to about 500,000 people, where many communities cling to steep hillsides that hug the Wujian river.
