At least one person has died and 28 people were reported missing after rains triggered a landslide in the Sichuan province of China, CBS News reports.
Emergency teams deployed nearly 1,000 personnel after the landslide struck the village of Jinping in Junlian County on Saturday (February 8). The destruction resulted in collapsed buildings and buried homes, while authorities used drones and life-detection radars during rescue efforts, state broadcaster CCTV reported via CBS News.
Two people were rescued and about 360 others were evacuated after 10 houses and a manufacturing building were buried in the disaster. Preliminary assessments showed that heavy rainfall and local geological conditions led to the destruction, transforming a landslide into a debris flow estimated to be longer than a mile with a total volume more than 3.5 million cubic feet, authorities confirmed during a news conference on Sunday (February 9).
Rescue efforts were lowed by continuous rainfall and additional landslides in the area, which was estimated to be about 15 football pitches, according to CBS News. Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was present at the site to guide the rescue operation and met with residents affected by the disaster, according to official news agency Xinhua.
Liu warned that surrounding slopes could lead to additional collapse risks and called for scientific assesment to ensure the safety of the operation and prevent more disaster from taking place.