In this picture taken from video footage run by China’s CCTV, rescue employees search by way of rubbles within the aftermath of a landslide in liangshui village in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024.

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In this picture taken from video footage run by China’s CCTV, rescue employees search by way of rubbles within the aftermath of a landslide in liangshui village in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024.

AP

BEIJING — A landslide in southwestern China’s mountainous Yunnan province early on Monday buried 47 folks, killing no less than two, and compelled the evacuation of 200 extra amid freezing temperatures and falling snow.

The catastrophe struck simply earlier than 6 a.m. within the village of Liangshui within the northeastern a part of Yunnan province. Rescue efforts have been underway to search out victims buried in 18 separate homes, the Zhenxiong county publicity division mentioned.

Two our bodies have been pulled from the rubble, based on state broadcaster CCTV. The explanation for the landslide wasn’t instantly referred to as survivors and rescuers struggled with snow and freezing temperatures that have been forecast to persist for no less than the subsequent three days.

Luo Dongmei, 35, was sleeping when the landslide struck, however she survived and was relocated to a faculty constructing by native authorities.

“I was asleep, but my brother knocked on the door and woke me up. They said there was a landslide and the bed was shaking, so they rushed upstairs and woke us up,” Luo mentioned.

Luo, her husband and their three kids, together with many different residents, have been supplied with meals on the faculty however are nonetheless ready for blankets and different safety from the chilly climate, she mentioned.

Luo mentioned she’s been unable to contact her sister and aunt, who lived nearer to the location of the landslide. “The only thing I can do is to wait,” she mentioned.

Last week, rescuers evacuated vacationers from a distant snowboarding space in northwestern China the place dozens of avalanches triggered by heavy snow had trapped greater than 1,000 folks for per week. The avalanches blocked roads, stranding each vacationers and residents in a village in Altay prefecture within the Xinjiang area, near China’s border with Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Landslides, usually brought on by rain or unsafe development work, are usually not unusual in China. At least 70 folks have been killed in landslides final yr, together with greater than 50 at an open pit mine in China’s Inner Mongolia area.

In all, pure disasters in China left 691 folks useless and lacking and final yr, inflicting direct financial losses of about 345 billion yuan ($48 billion, based on the National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Emergency Management. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources enacted emergency response measures for geological disasters and despatched a piece staff of specialists to the location.

Minister of Emergency Management Wang Xiangxi has traveled to the landslide website to information rescue operations, based on a press release from the ministry.

The landslide in Yunnan additionally got here simply over a month after China’s strongest earthquake in years struck the northwest in a distant area between Gansu and Qinghai province. At least 149 folks have been killed within the magnitude 6.2 temblor that struck on Dec. 18, lowering properties to rubble and triggering heavy mudslides that inundated two villages in Qinghai province.

Nearly 1,000 folks have been injured and greater than 14,000 properties have been destroyed in what was China’s deadliest earthquake in 9 years.