Landslide rescue work underway

President Xi Jinping has called for all-out efforts to search for and rescue the people missing after a landslide on Monday in Zhenxiong county of Yunnan province.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the instruction after the landslide buried 18 houses and left 47 people missing at around 6 am on Monday in Liangshui village.

As of press time, rescuers had pulled eight people out of the rubble, but all of them were dead, local authorities said. Over 500 residents had been evacuated.

Roughly 300,000 cubic meters of soil and rocks collapsed in the landslide, according to a preliminary estimate.

Xi said that rescuers must take every measure to search for the missing and minimize casualties, and he also demanded that monitoring and early warning be enhanced at the site to prevent secondary disasters.

Efforts should also be made to comfort the families of the victims and properly accommodate villagers affected by the disaster, he said.