One man pulled alive from landslide in Shenzhen

chika ebuzor

December 23, 2015 6:56 AM

Firefighters had to squeeze into a narrow room around Tian and pull debris out by hand at the dump site in Hengtaiyu industrial park, rescuer Zhang Yabin told Xinhua.

President Xi says China will guarantee foreign companies' legal rights

A man was pulled alive from rubble in a southern Chinese city on Wednesday, more than 60 hours after a waste heap collapsed and buried dozens of buildings in mud and construction debris, state media said.

Tian Zeming, who was found at 3:30 a.m. (1930 GMT Tuesday), was in a coherent state but his legs had been crushed in Sunday's landslide at an industrial park in Shenzhen, a boomtown near Hong Kong.

"He told the soldiers who rescued him, there is another survivor close by," state news agency Xinhua said, although it later reported rescuers had found another body rather than a survivor.

That took the confirmed death toll to two. The government has said more than 70 people are missing in China's latest industrial disaster, although this figure continues to be revised down as authorities make contact with people who were believed to have been buried but were not.

Tian has had surgery and is in a stable condition in hospital, though he may lose a foot, the Xinhua report said.

On Tuesday, police raided offices of the company that was managing the dump site, Shenzhen Yixianglong Investment Development.

Chinese news portals said police had taken away a deputy general manager named Yu Shengli. Calls to the company seeking comment went unanswered. Shenzhen police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

chika ebuzor