Landslide buries over 140 people in a tiny village in southwest China (PHOTOS)
Rescuers scoured through rocks on Saturday in a frantic search for more than 140 people feared buried after a landslide smashed through a mountain village in southwestern China.
A couple and a baby were rescued and taken to hospital after more than 40 homes in the village of Xinmo, in Maoxian County of China's Sichuan Province, were swallowed by huge boulders when the side of a mountain collapsed.
At least 141 people and 46 homes were buried, according to Chinese media.
The landslide blocked a 1.24 mile section of a river.
More than 400 rescuers used ropes to move a massive rock while dozens of others searched the rubble for survivors, according to videos posted by the Maoxian government on its Weibo social media account.
Bulldozers and heavy diggers were also deployed to remove boulders, the images showed. Medics were seen treating a woman on a road.
Wang Yongbo, one of the local officials in charge of rescue efforts, said the vital signs one of the survivors 'are weak'.
'It's the biggest landslide in this area since the Wenchuan earthquake,' he said, referring to the disaster that killed 87,000 people in 2008 in a town in Sichuan.
Local police captain Chen Tiebo said the heavy rains that hit the region in recent days had triggered the landslide.
'There are several tonnes of rock,' he told the state broadcaster CCTV.
'It's a seismic area here. There's not a lot of vegetation,' Chen said.
Trees can help absorb excess rain and prevent landslides.
An emergency response 'to the first class catastrophic geological disaster' is under way, the local government's statement said, adding that the full extent of the landslide was at yet unclear.
A couple and a baby were rescued and taken to hospital after more than 40 homes in the village of Xinmo, in Maoxian County of China's Sichuan Province, were swallowed by huge boulders when the side of a mountain collapsed.
At least 141 people and 46 homes were buried, according to Chinese media.
The landslide blocked a 1.24 mile section of a river.
More than 400 rescuers used ropes to move a massive rock while dozens of others searched the rubble for survivors, according to videos posted by the Maoxian government on its Weibo social media account.
Bulldozers and heavy diggers were also deployed to remove boulders, the images showed. Medics were seen treating a woman on a road.
Wang Yongbo, one of the local officials in charge of rescue efforts, said the vital signs one of the survivors 'are weak'.
'It's the biggest landslide in this area since the Wenchuan earthquake,' he said, referring to the disaster that killed 87,000 people in 2008 in a town in Sichuan.
Local police captain Chen Tiebo said the heavy rains that hit the region in recent days had triggered the landslide.
'There are several tonnes of rock,' he told the state broadcaster CCTV.
'It's a seismic area here. There's not a lot of vegetation,' Chen said.
Trees can help absorb excess rain and prevent landslides.
An emergency response 'to the first class catastrophic geological disaster' is under way, the local government's statement said, adding that the full extent of the landslide was at yet unclear.
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