China landslide death toll rises to 20; earthquake strikes Xinjiang Province

Paul Godfrey
·2 min read
UPI
Chinese authorities said the death toll from Monday's landslide in the country's southwestern Yunnan Province now stands at 20, with 24 still missing. Photo by Hu Chao/EPA-EFE/XINHUA

Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The death toll from a massive landslide in southwest China's mountainous Yunnan Province rose to 20, with 24 still missing, authorities said Tuesday.

More than a thousand people from nearby villages have joined the rescue operation in Liangshui village, about 35 miles west of the provincial capital Kunming but as of 2 a.m. EST another 12 bodies had been recovered, state TV reported, on top of the eight found in the hours following the landslide Monday.

Another three people among the 47 initially thought to have been buried in the landslide in which part of a mountainside came away and engulfed the village were found elsewhere safe and sound.

Authorities have deployed 45 rescue dogs and 150 rescue vehicles to the scene including excavators, loaders, large transport vehicles and other mechanical equipment with more than 100 medical personnel and 16 ambulances standing by ready to treat victims.

Almost a thousand residents have been evacuated to safety with another 778 taken in by relatives and friends and disaster relief supplies have also been shipped in including tents, folding beds, bedding, food, hygiene kits, portable toilets and lighting.

Elsewhere, a remote area of Xinjiang Province in the far northwest, near the Kyrgyzstan border, was hit by a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake in the early hours of Tuesday injuring at least three people, collapsing buildings and bringing down power lines.

As many as 200 search and rescue personnel are en route to the scene with hundreds more being readied to follow.

The epicenter was in Wushi County in Aksu Prefecture at a depth of 13 miles, according to the China Seismological Network which said tremors had been felt as far away as Kashgar and Hotan in southern Xinjiang and across the border in Kyrgyzstan and other neighboring countries.

Authorities in the Kazakhstan capital, Almaty, said 44 people had been injured there.

In December, 111 people were killed and thousands of homes destroyed in a 6.1 magnitude quake that struck China's north-western Gansu and Qinghai provinces.