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

This is the moment a devastated villager collapses in despair as a landslide hits her home moments after she was evacuated by officials.

Miao Caixia, from the town of Jianping in Zizhou County in north-western China’s Shaanxi Province, was among 14 people evacuated before the disaster struck on 7th February.

Town officials were alerted to a possible shift in the foundations after Ms Miao noticed cracks in her floor and walls the previous day.

Ms Miao and members of three other households lived in the same ground-floor building, part of a so-called ‘cave-style’ structure built into the mountainside.

Video taken on the day of the evacuation shows officials noticing a trickling of rocks down the face of the mountain at 5:40pm local time.

They tell others to stand clear as the mountainside gives way and a landslide sends rocks and boulders tumbling down onto Ms Miao’s home, burying it in seconds.

In the video, Ms Miao can be seen taking shelter behind a parked car before collapsing in despair at the sight of her lost home.

Jiaping Town official Hu Pengju said: “The night before she notified us about a crack in her floor.

“When we arrived, we noticed it was more than 10 metres (30 feet) in length.

“Due to the risk of a landslide, we began evacuating the family.

“But Ms Miao initially did not want to leave. She said she wouldn’t have a home if she left.”

Ms Miao, who together with 13 other relatives and neighbours have been relocated by town officials, said: “The landslide took away everything. I didn’t even manage to take a single grain of rice.”

Officials said they would keep the villagers in temporary housing while clean-up work continued.

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