Buried alive: More than 100 people feared dead in China landslide

UPDATE: Rescuers have pulled 15 bodies from a massive landslide in China as the search continues for more than 100 others still trapped.

More than 100 people are feared dead in a landslide in China. Picture: Xinhua News Agency.

RESCUERS have pulled 15 bodies from a massive landslide in China as the search continues for more than 100 others still trapped.

Only three survivors - a couple and their one-month-old baby - have been found so far after 62 homes in Xinmo village vanished under a mass of mud and rocks in Sichuan province.

Qiao Dashuai, the baby’s father, said he had woken up after 5am to change his crying son’s nappy when he “heard a big noise coming from the back”.

“The house shook,” he told state broadcaster CCTV from his hospital bed. “Rocks were in the living room. My wife and I climbed over, took the baby, and got out.”

“I have superficial injuries. Overall, I’m okay. But psychologically, it’s hard. The entire village, with dozens of families, was flattened,” he said, with a bandage around his head.

Qiao Dashuai, left, is attended to by nurses at a hospital after surviving a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province. Picture: AP

More than 140 people were buried alive in the massive landslide with reports at least 40 homes in the village of Xinmo have also been destroyed by the natural disaster in the Maoxian County of China’s Sichuan Province.

Provincial officials said at noon that 141 people were missing and 1.6 kilometres of road had been buried.

In a statement, the Maoxian government said that homes were swallowed by cascading debris after the side of the mountain collapsed, blocking a two kilometre stretch of river.

A report from the state news agency Xinhua also said that “part of a mountain” in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba had collapsed.

The incident was reportedly triggered by heavy rain around 6am local time.

An emergency response “to the first class catastrophic geological disaster” is under way with more than 400 rescuers and police on site.

The Maoxian County is located by the Minjiang River in China.

Emergency personnel work at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Around 100 people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes Saturday, a county government said. Picture: He Qinghai/Xinhua via AP.

Wang Yongbo, a local rescue official, told state broadcaster CCTV that an estimated 3 million cubic meters (105 million cubic feet) of earth and rock — equivalent to more than 1,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools — had slid down the mountain. Photos posted on the site showed an area buried by earth and massive rocks. Emergency responders helped a woman by the road.

More than 100 people are feared buried in a landslide in China. A rescue mission is underway. Picture: Twitter.

China’s Maoxian County is located by the Minjiang River.

CCTV footage showed rescuers using a couple of earth movers but also relying on ropes to pull at large boulders.

#BREAKING: More than 100 people buried after massive landslide in Maoxian County, SW China's Sichuan Province; rescue underway pic.twitter.com/VdEJZ38cm6

— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) June 24, 2017

#BREAKING Over 100 ppl buried after massive landslide at Maoxian County in China's Sichuan Province, rescue underway pic.twitter.com/sZq5C9ZiCJ

— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) June 24, 2017

The mountainous region — known for its ancient stone castles, dense forests, torrential streams and valleys — is located on the Minjiang River.

Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly at times of heavy rains.

At least 12 people were killed in January when a landslide smashed into a hotel in central Hubei province.

In October landslides battered eastern China in the wake of torrential rains brought by Typhoon Megi, causing widespread damage and killing at least eight.

Chinese inhabitants were first recorded in the area during the Shang Dynasty in 1600-1046BC.

Today it has a population of more than 109,000 people, mostly of the Qiang ethnic minority.

More to come.

Originally published as Buried alive: More than 100 people feared dead in China landslide