Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a speedy rescue mission after a landslide in the southeastern province of Fujian buried 41 construction workers as they slept in their dormitory building at a hydroelectric power station.
The landslide hit Taining County at around 5 am local time on Sunday following torrential rainfall that saw 191.6 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
Around 100,000 cubic metres of mud and rocks fell downhill, burying a temporary shed at a building site at the power plant.
Deng Chunwu survived by hiding underneath a supporting pole along with three other people in their work camp.
“We were still asleep when the mountains began to jolt very strongly and before we know it, sand and mud are flowing into our room,” he told Xinhua.
The room was pushed 10 metres along by flowing mud.
“It’s been raining all the time over the past couple of days and I didn’t think it was a big deal,” Mr Deng said.
“But the rain last night was more fierce than ever.”
He and his roommates were hospitalised and one of his roommates was seriously injured.
Sniffer dogs were working alongside more than 600 rescue workers looking for signs of life. Dozens of excavators were digging through the debris.
There have been strong inflows of water into rivers and reservoirs and the country is gearing up for a major flood year.
The world’s largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Reservoir, on China’s longest river, the Yangtze, recorded inflow of 17,800 cubic metres per second on Sunday, the highest since 1992, the agency said.
Rainfall in Taining is 35 per cent higher than usual.
Lyu Mengjing, Communist Party secretary of Sinohydro, told a news conference that rescuers would continue searching for the 41 workers from the two companies.
Another 13 people are being treated at a local hospital. All are in stable condition, authorities said.
“Mr Xi urged the Fujian local government and related departments to organise rescue work as quickly as possible,” Xinhua reported.
