Landslide In Southern China Leaves At Least 41 People Missing

UPDATE: 2 p.m. EST — Chinese officials raised to 59 the number of people missing by midnight Sunday in a landslide in Shenzhen city that buried 33 buildings. Yang Feng, an official with the Shenzhen emergency management office, told reporters the missing include 36 men and 23 women, iCrossChina reported. Three deaths were confirmed.

Original story:

A landslide in southern China buried buildings at an industrial park Sunday in Guangdong province’s Shenzhen city leaving at least 41 people missing, officials said. The incident occurred in the Liuxi Industrial Park in Guangming New District in the northwest part of the city.

Over 700 people are searching for those trapped under debris, Xinhua News reported. At least seven people were rescued after 18 buildings were buried in the landslide, the Ministry of Public Security's firefighting bureau said in an online statement, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Li Yikang, the deputy secretary general of the Shenzhen city government, said that over 900 people were evacuated from the area, AP reported. Ren Jiguang, the deputy chief of Shenzhen's public security bureau, told CCTV that majority of the people were moved before the area was hit with the landslide.

According to AP, state media photos showed at least one five-story building leaning over and partially destroyed in the industrial park, and brown soil covering a vast area around it.