Death toll in SW China landslide rises to 12

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-28 17:16

KUNMING - Five more bodies had been retrieved from a landslide site in southwest China's Yunnan Province by 1 p.m. Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 12, according to a local government official.

Tang Guoqian, head of the public affairs department of the government of Weixin County, said that 10 people were still missing.

The landslide took place at 12:40 p.m. Sunday at Xiaoba Village, Zhaxi Township, after almost four days of torrential rain.

The landslide destroyed two buildings of the Huajiaba Coal Mine at the site.

Two people were injured and were in stable condition in a hospital.

Rescuers were still at work, but there was little hope of finding the missing alive, said Tang.

He said the county would pay 250,000 yuan (US$36,603) in compensation to the family of each victim.

Tang said the victims and the missing people were coal mine managers and miners from Zhaotong City, which administers Weixin County, and from Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality.

Another landslide, the result of unsafe quarry production, occurred an hour earlier in Linfeng Township, Weixin County, killing four passers-by.