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A man was rescued early Wednesday morning, more than 60 hours after being buried by a landslide at an industrial park in the southern city of Shenzhen.
Tian Zeming, 21, from Chongqing, was spotted at 3:30 a.m. and pulled from the debris three hours later. He was immediately taken to Guangming New District Central Hospital.
Following surgery, Tian is in a stable condition. Another person who was trapped together with Tian, was dead when rescuers reached him.
Tian was one of 76 people reported missing in the incident, which occurred just before midday on Sunday when a huge pile of construction waste collapsed on Hengtaiyu industrial park in Guangming New District.
Rescuers squeezed into the narrow space where Tian was trapped and removed most of the debris by hand, said Zhang Yabin, a police officer at the scene. Tian was given oxygen and an intravenous infusion while still trapped in the debris.
The landslide covered an area of 380,000 square meters with 10 meters of silt, leaving 33 buildings buried or damaged. A nearby section of a major gas pipeline burst, cutting off the gas supply to neighboring Hong Kong.
Non-stop rescue
Heavy machinery continues to work through the thousands of tonnes of soil and rubble, and even though the 72-hour golden period for saving lives has ended, rescuers have not lost hope.
More than 5,000 rescuers, including armed police and fire fighters, are involved, using excavators, bulldozers, cranes, drones, dogs and vital-signs detectors, said Zhang Hu, vice mayor of Shenzhen on Wednesday evening. Only four bodies have been recovered.
The thick, wet silt is causing great difficulties for rescuers in accurately locating the buried buildings, said Zhang. "We will do everything we can and mobilize all possible forces," said the official.
Wang Guoshe, head of Guangdong fire department, said they were working to expose the buried buildings as soon as possible for precise detection of vital signs.
A total of 1,817 disaster-affected people have been evacuated.
Investigation team
On Wednesday morning, the State Council, China's cabinet, began an investigation into the incident. Minister of Land and Resources Jiang Daming will lead the investigation team, which includes representatives of Guangdong and Shenzhen governments, five ministries, the State Administration of Work Safety and trade unions.
The accident comes at the end of the year that began badly with a New Year's Eve stampede in Shanghai and saw a catastrophic explosion at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin in August.
As China pushes forward with urbanization, more attention must be paid to urban management. Just last weekend, policymakers agreed to transform urban development patterns and improve city management.
Wang Yongquan, who narrowly escaped the Shenzhen landslide, said he and his neighbors had watched trucks carrying construction waste for the past two years, and seen a mountain of rubble grow where once was a hollow quarry.
"We never thought it could be dangerous," he said.
When the landslide occurred, he was returning home with his five-year-old daughter from the supermarket and ran as fast as he could with the girl in his arms. His parents and brother-in-law from central China's Henan province are among the missing. They worked as laborers and garbage collectors. Wang's home was on the hillside 200 meters from where the landslide started.
"I still have hope," Wang said as he watched the excavators going about their arduous task where his home used to be.
