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Construction landslide kills at least 22 in China

The death toll has risen to 22 and 17 people remain missing after a landslide engulfed a construction site in Taining County in southeast China’s Fujian Province early yesterday, local authorities said today (9 May).

Overnight, excavators moved boulders while rescuers groped through mud and rocks searching for 41 missing people following a landslide at a hydropower station under construction.

The Sinohydro Bureau 12 company is building an expansion of the Chitan hydropower station, along with the Sinohydro Bureau 16, state news agency Xinhua reports. Both companies have been involved in the rescue work

As of 1 pm local time today, 22 bodies had been found at the scene and two people who were on the missing list had been found alive, authorities said.

At about 5 am on Sunday about 100,000 cubic meters of mud and rocks flowed downhill, burying a temporary shed at a hydropower station construction site and damaging its offices.

Heavy rain has made rescue work more difficult. One local official told Xinhua that residents in the area need to be evacuated soon to avoid more geological disasters.

A landslide in December in the commercial hub of Shenzhen, caused by the improper storage of soil from construction activity, killed at least 58 people.

Photograph: Rescuers carry the body of a victim at the site of a landslide in Taining County, China, on 9 May 2016 (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

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