Hundreds of rescuers in southwest China struggled in treacherous conditions yesterday to pull out 107 people buried in a landslide, but said there was only a “slim” chance of finding survivors.
About 600 rescuers were searching through the mud and debris for signs of life in Dazhai village in Guizhou Province, local government spokeswoman Pi Yingfang said, a day after the landslide.
“The rescue is under way but it’s still raining hard and the local terrain is complex, which is affecting the rescue process,” said Pi, who represents the authorities in Guanling County.
State television showed rescuers walking on a wide, thick trail of mud that appeared to have almost entirely covered houses in its wake, and diggers had arrived at the scene to begin sifting through the dirt and rocks.
More than 100,000 cubic meters of mud and rocks, the equivalent of 40 Olympic-size swimming pools, had fallen on the houses, the official People’s Daily newspaper said.
The landslide was the latest weather-related disaster to hit China, which has suffered from floods and landslides for more than two weeks since summer downpours have pounded parts of the nation’s south, east and center.
So far this month, at least 235 people have died and more than 100 have gone missing in rain-related accidents, according to China’s civil affairs ministry.
Millions more have had to flee their homes and authorities said on Sunday that nearly 69 million people had been affected.
The local rescue headquarters in Guanling said the victims had a “slim” chance of survival, Xinhua news agency reported.
Villager Cen Chaoyang said he had managed to escape his house when he heard the landslide.
“I called for the others to flee, but it was too late. I saw some people behind me being buried,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Rescuers had to run 5km to reach the site, which was initially inaccessible by car, and were forced to halt the search late on Monday over fears of more landslides, the official China Daily newspaper said.
The National Meteorological Center said authorities needed to strengthen inspections of areas where geological disasters could occur in China’s rain-soaked south to prevent similar deadly accidents from happening.
This year’s floods are among the worst in the southern part of the country since 1998, when more than 3,600 people were killed and over 20 million displaced, Xinhua said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS