Mudslide deaths rise to 23; 14 missing

The death toll from an East China landslide has risen to 23, with 14 people still missing, China News Service said on Sunday.

Only one person has been rescued so far after the landslide hit a village in Zhejiang province on Friday night.

By Sunday afternoon, psychologists had arrived in the affected area and started counseling survivors, China Central Television reported.

The landslide was reported at around 10:50 pm in Lidong, located in an outlying district of Lishui, the city government said in a news release.

Torrents of mud and rock buried 27 homes and flooded 21 others.

Tents, food and water were transported to the village as part of a rescue effort after about 300 people were evacuated. More than 2,300 rescuers, along with seven sniffer dogs, are helping with rescue work.

Lishui reported heavy rain over the past two days. As of 8 am on Friday, average precipitation reached 36 millimeters. It was still raining when the landslide occurred, the local weather bureau said.

A resident surnamed Xu told China National Radio that she lost four family members in the landslide and one remained in the hospital.

Located near the mountain, Xu's house collapsed immediately in the landslide, she said. She and her husband escaped by crawling out a window.

Zhao Hanqing, deputy president of 102 Military Hospital of China in Jiangsu province, led a team of six counselors to Lidong on Saturday.

The team brought along psychological evaluation equipment and medicines. It focused on helping residents who lost family members in the disaster, according to China National Radio.

Local media said a first group of 30 families from the village will receive insurance payments of 22,500 yuan ($3,530).

Xinhua contributed to this story.

Rescuers carry the bodies of victims away from the site of a landslide in Lidong village in Lishui, Zhejiang province, on Sunday. Shen Zhicheng / For China Daily