Weather adds to danger after fatal landslide

An on-going risk of secondary collapses remains at the site of a deadly landslide in Pengshui Miao and Tujia autonomous county, Chongqing, particularly because of extreme weather conditions such as heavy rainfall, intense sunshine and high temperatures, local officials said on Friday night.

The landslide, which has so far claimed eight lives, with another 34 people reported missing, occurred at around 9 am local time on Friday. Scattered rock fragments remain on the top and both sides of the collapsed steep rock face, said Wang Chuanjun, director of the county's planning and natural resources bureau, at a news conference.

The landslide mass stretches around 60 meters long, 30 meters high and 10 meters thick, with a total volume of approximately 18,000 cubic meters. The largest single rock fragment weighs about 3,000 cubic meters, classifying the incident as a large-scale collapse, Wang said.

The steep terrain, combined with the concealed nature of the geological hazard, makes such collapses highly sudden and difficult to predict, Wang said.

"Moving forward, we will ramp up monitoring and early warning, conduct timely risk assessments and implement rapid response measures," he explained.