47 buried in South-West China landslide

DE Online Desk
BEIJING: Forty-seven people were buried when a landslide struck a remote and mountainous part of south-western China on Monday (Jan 22), state media reported.
The pre-dawn landslide hit Zhenxiong County, Yunnan province, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing local authorities.
State broadcaster CCTV said around 18 households were buried, and that more than 200 people were “urgently evacuated” from the area.
Authorities have launched an emergency response involving over 200 rescue workers as well as dozens of fire engines and other equipment, according to CCTV.
Footage shared on social media by a local broadcaster showed emergency workers in orange jumpsuits and helmets forming ranks outside a fire station as snowflakes whirled through the air.
Other images showed rescuers picking through towering piles of collapsed masonry in which a few personal belongings could be seen.
Authorities did not immediately specify whether anyone had died in the landslide.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged “all-out” rescue efforts, CCTV reported.
Xi “demanded that rescue forces are organised quickly … and efforts made to reduce casualties as far as possible,” the broadcaster reported him as saying.
He added that it was “necessary to properly handle the work of comforting the families of the deceased and resettling affected people”.
CCTV broadcast an image it said showed a firefighter working to pull a trapped villager from inside a home affected by the disaster.
The local village head declined to speak about the landslide when contacted by phone, telling AFP he was “too busy”.