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Rescue workers in China have pulled bodies out of piles of rock and mud as they searched for 93 people missing a day after a landslide buried a mountain village, with some residents giving up hope of finding survivors.
Key points:
- 1,000 rescuers and dogs are looking for signs of life
- This was the biggest landslide in the area since the Wenchuan earthquake, an official said
- Landslide blocked two-kilometre section of river
A huge landslide crashed down on the village of Xinmo, in mountainous Sichuan province, as dawn broke on Saturday (local time).
Authorities at the scene on Sunday said 10 bodies had been confirmed recovered, refuting a report by the Xinhua state news agency on Saturday that 15 people had been confirmed dead/
"This is useless," said villager Han Jianying, who was searching for missing family members.
"Everyone's going to be in pieces anyway."
Three members of one family were located five hours after the landslide.
Qiao Dashuai, 26, said he and his wife awoke to cries from their one-month-old son about 5:30am.
"Just after we changed the diaper for the baby, we heard a big bang outside and the light went out," he said.
"We felt that something bad was happening and immediately rushed to the door, but the door was blocked by mud and rocks."
Qiao told CCTV his family was swept away by water as part of a mountain collapsed.
He said they struggled against the flood of water until they met medical workers who took them to a hospital.
Slim chances of surviving under rubble
Authorities reduced the number of missing after 15 people were confirmed as safe, the Xinmo village propaganda department said on its microblog.
It was not clear if the 15 had been rescued or had simply been away at the time of the disaster.
The rescue involved more than 3,000 people despite the danger of more landslides, Xinhua reported.
Geological experts said the chances of anyone surviving under the rubble were slim.
"We weren't able to pull anyone out alive," said Wu Youheng, who lives in a neighbouring village and rushed to help on Saturday.
"We pulled out two people but they were already dead.
I think it's too late, they're unlikely to find anyone else alive."
Area prone to landslides
Heavy rain triggered the landslide, authorities said.
Mr Wu said the area was prone to landslides but the scale of Saturday's slide was unprecedented.
His wife, Zhang Xiaohong, said they often sleep in other villages because of fear of landslides but could not afford to move to a safer part of Mao county, where Xinmo is located.
The names of the missing were posted on government websites.
Sichuan province is prone to earthquakes, including a 8.0 magnitude tremor in central Sichuan's Wenchuan county in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.
In 2014, a landslide in the same county killed 11 people when it struck a section of a highway.
AP/Reuters
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, storm-disaster, landslide, emergency-incidents, china