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Rescue teams are searching for survivors after a landslide in Chongqing's Pengshui County killed eight people and left 34 missing. Persistent rain, unstable boulders and buried homes have made the operation slow and dangerous.
Chennai,UPDATED: Jul 18, 2026 11:08 IST
Rescue teams in China's southwestern city of Chongqing were racing on Saturday to find survivors after a landslide killed at least eight people and left 34 missing. The slide hit Pengshui County on Friday morning, burying more than 10 residential buildings under rocks and soil, while persistent rain and unstable weather made rescue work more difficult, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Ten people were rescued and taken to hospital, and more than 1,100 people were relocated after the disaster on the outer edge of the Chongqing municipality. China’s Development and Reform Commission on Saturday allocated 30 million yuan in relief funds to help restore infrastructure and public service facilities after the landslide.
Photos and Associated Press videos from the site showed large rocks and debris strewn across steep ground. One of the fallen rocks appeared larger than a multi-storey building. One damaged building had its upper part crushed, while a car was seen half-buried near another building.
The landslide involved about 18,000 cubic metres of rocks and debris, and the largest single rock was around 3,000 cubic metres, Wang Chuanjun, head of Planning and Natural Resources in Pengshui County, told a news conference on Friday.
CCTV said persistent rain lashed Pengshui from Friday night to Saturday morning, with 19.2 centimetres of rainfall recorded at a weather station. As the rain eased slightly, rescue teams entered the area to inspect the collapsed buildings and riverbank on the ground. CCTV said teams were carrying out operations on one side of the massive rocks, and would later need to search beneath them, where there was a risk of injury if the boulders became unstable and slid. After the search around the rocks is completed, officers will drill into the boulders and use explosives to break them apart, it said.
The rain-triggered landslide took place near a section of the Wujiang River, which runs through mountains dotted with small towns and terraces. Pengshui County is in the south-eastern part of Chongqing and borders Hubei and Guizhou. The disaster left at least eight people dead, 34 missing, 10 in hospital and more than 1,100 relocated as rescue efforts continued on Saturday.
With PTI Inputs
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Published By:
India Today Web Desk
Published On:
Jul 18, 2026 11:08 IST
