Search efforts are continuing in the aftermath of a landslide on Wednesday morning in Guangzhou’s Baiyun district. As of Friday, seven people had been rescued in the tragedy at Dayuan village, six were found dead, while one remains missing.
The landslide happened during an evacuation, after local officials noticed abnormal amounts of flowing mud during an inspection. Guangdong’s governor, Wang Weizhong, has personally participated in rescue efforts. Search and rescue workers have meanwhile demolished damaged buildings and evacuated over 75,000 people.
The incident occurred after a week of torrential rainfall, the province’s fifth most intense spell of precipitation since the turn of the century. The rain has caused substantial infrastructure damage in Guangzhou and led to disruption to railway services.
[See more: Two people are dead and several missing following a landslide in Guangzhou]
The resulting damage to greenhouses has amounted to over 1 million yuan, with Dan Wang of China’s Eurasia Group predicting that damage to crops will raise the costs of fresh produce.
The disaster is not the first large-scale landslide for Baiyun in recent years: last April, the district saw a landslide that trapped 14. According to China’s NetEase news portal, self-built homes that violate local safety standards are not uncommon in the area.
The central government has allocated 1 billion yuan (US$139 million) in disaster relief funds to multiple areas hit recently by extreme weather events, including Beijing, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Guangdong.
