47 people buried in China’s southwestern Yunnan province

Forty-seven people have been buried in a landslide that occurred before 6 a.m in the village of Liangshui on Monday, 22 January, in southwestern China's mountainous Yunnan province. Due to freezing temperatures and falling snow, 200 individuals have been evacuated. The Zhenxiong county publicity department is currently conducting rescue operations to locate victims trapped in the 18 affected houses.

Despite the ongoing snowfall, Luo Dongmei, aged 35, managed to survive the disaster and was relocated to a nearby school under the supervision of local authorities. She stated, “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.”

Landslides, often caused by rainfall or unsafe construction, are not uncommon in China. Last year, they claimed the lives of at least 70 people, with over 50 fatalities at an open pit mine in Inner Mongolia. In 2021, a tunnel flood resulted in the loss of 14 workers' lives. Additionally, a month after a powerful earthquake in the northwest region, a landslide occurred in Yunnan. This earthquake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, killed at least 149 people and caused extensive destruction. Nearly 1,000 people were injured and over 14,000 homes were destroyed. It is the deadliest earthquake in China in the past nine years.