President: Maximum effort urged in response to landslide

President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged all-out effort in the search for people still missing in a deadly landslide that killed at least 13 people in Southwest China's Guizhou province on Tuesday night.

No effort should be spared to treat the injured, accommodate those affected by the disaster and comfort family members of the victims, Xi said. Rescue work should be done in a scientific manner and monitoring for risk needs to be enhanced to prevent secondary disasters, he said.

Xi made the remarks as rescuers continued their search for the missing in the landslide, which ripped through part of the village of Pingdi in Shuicheng county. At 9:20 pm on Tuesday, the landslide hit the village, swallowing 21 of the 27 houses there.

As of press time on Wednesday, of the 77 residents, 11 were rescued, 13 had died and 32 were missing, according to local authorities. Also, 21 people were not at home when the landslide happened.

Flood control has been difficult during this year's flood season, with natural disaster hazards becoming frequent in areas that have experienced heavy rains. Xi said local government agencies responsible for guarding against such hazards should proactively organize personnel to comb their areas for potential problems, ramp up efforts in forecasting and alert and intensify disaster prevention work.

He also emphasized that officials should seriously fulfill their duties to protect the safety of people's lives and property.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave instructions on the disaster, asking rescuers to leave no stone unturned to reduce casualties and comb through areas near the site for safety hazards.

The village is normally an area of intensely green foliage shrouded by fog. But images from Wednesday show what looks like a long, reddish-brown scar down the side of a green hillside.

"We were having dinner at home when we heard a loud noise. A power failure plunged the village into darkness. Without knowing what happened, I was very nervous," villager Kang Paizhao told chinanews.com.

The Ministry of Emergency Management said more than 660 rescuers, including firefighters and members of local rescue teams, had been dispatched to the area to search for the missing with sniffer dogs and life-detection instruments.

Huang Ming, Party secretary of the ministry, arrived at the site to lead a work team also comprising officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the emergency management ministry said in a news release on Wednesday.

The finance and emergency management ministries dispatched 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) of disaster relief funds to Guizhou, it said.

Heavy, continuous rainfall also resulted in a landslide in Jinping county in neighboring Yunnan province at 4 am on Wednesday, killing three people, according to the county government.

The risk of geological disasters remains high in southwestern areas of China, officials said.

The China Meteorological Administration and the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly issued an alert for geological disasters in the 24 hours following 8 pm on Wednesday, warning that there is a high chance of such disasters occurring in southeastern Sichuan province, northeastern Yunnan and northwestern Guizhou.

Li Yingqing in Kunming contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn

Rescue workers recover on Wednesday the body of a victim killed in a landslide in the village of Pingdi in Guizhou province's Shuicheng county. The disaster occurred at 9:20 pm on Tuesday.Tao Liang/xinhua