Eight people were killed and 34 others remained missing after a landslide struck Pengshui county in China's southwestern municipality of Chongqing on Friday, collapsing multiple residential buildings and triggering a large-scale rescue operation, local authorities said.
The landslide occurred at 9:08 a.m. local time while authorities were evacuating residents after a community worker spotted scattered falling rocks about an hour earlier and issued an emergency warning. More than 60 residents had been ordered to leave the area before the hillside gave way, officials said.
President Xi Jinping, in a directive issued late Friday, ordered authorities to carry out all-out search and rescue operations for those still missing and called for an investigation into the cause of the landslide.
The disaster flattened several residential buildings downhill and forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 people from nearby areas. By Friday afternoon, 10 people had been injured, including two who were seriously injured and two in critical condition, according to local government officials.
China's Ministry of Emergency Management activated a Level-II emergency response and dispatched a 100-member rescue team to the site. The ministry said 206 personnel and 49 vehicles from the country's fire and rescue force had also been deployed to assist with rescue efforts.
The cause of the landslide was not immediately known.
Aerial footage broadcast by state-run CCTV showed rocks and debris crashing onto a cluster of riverside residential buildings as residents fled through thick clouds of dust.
Separately, a dashcam video posted on X and verified by Reuters showed a section of the hillside collapsing onto homes and businesses below, sending debris across a road and forcing passing vehicles and a motorcycle to come to a halt. Reuters could not immediately determine the underlying cause of the collapse.
(With inputs from Reuters)
