3 Missing As Mine Buried In 6.7M Cubic Feet Landslide

Story By: John FengSub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report   

Video Credit: AsiaWire

This is the moment a torrent of rocks and boulders rolls down a mountainside and buries a mine leaving three people are reportedly missing and feared dead.

Footage taken by residents in the town of Xinxing, which is in Songyuan County in East China’s Zhejiang Province, shows the moment the rockslide hit at 10:43am local time on 17th December.

Picture Credit: AsiaWire

Officials say some 190,000 cubic metres (6.7 million cubic feet) of earth and stone tumbled down the mountainside during the rockslide, which buried a mine belonging to a local sand mining company.

The video shows a large cloud of dust being kicked up into the air as the landslide happens, with subsequent footage showing large boulders on top of where the mining facility used to be.

Officials added that 17 miners were present at the time of the collapse, but three are still unaccounted for and feared dead in the pit roughly 21,000 square feet in size.

Search and rescue equipment and canine units had yet to find any signs of life as of 11am local time today (18th December).

More than 300 rescue personnel are understood to be on site in ongoing search efforts.

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Officials still investigating the cause of the landslide say the disaster was likely caused by usually dry weather.