Mudslide death toll now 128

Hopes of survival of the hundreds of people buried in Monday's landslide in Shanxi province is almost zero, the country's top safety administrator said yesterday, as the death toll in the disaster rose to 128.

State Administration of Work Safety Minister Wang Jun told China Daily that the exact number of people buried under hundreds of thousands of tons of slush and rocks was not known. But their number could be "several hundreds".

The landslide occurred when the 15-m-high bank of a liquid iron-ore waste dump burst after being filled to more than capacity, reported China Central Television. The dump in Xingfen county belonged to Tashan Mine.

Such was the force and suddenness of the iron-ore waste flow that only 35 people escaped with injuries; the rest of the people caught in the landslide either died or were buried under the thick, heavy slush.

"There's almost no hope of their survival… they have been buried for three days" under 2 m of slush, said Wang, who is supervising the rescue work.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao both have asked government departments to do everything possible to rescue the survivors, and help the injured and the families of the dead.

The cause of the disaster should be ascertained and the guilty punished according to the law, they said.

More than 2,200 rescuers are using 79 dredging machines to dig and shovel debris in search of survivors.

According to witnesses, the landslide buried an entire village of 1,000 people, a market with hundreds of buyers and sellers and a three-story office building near the mine.

The market was full of people when the slush flowed in because a major fair was going on then. Minutes later, only a thick layer of reddish slush could be seen there.

The Tashan Mine was operating illegally, said Yin Yueping, an expert with China Geological Survey. "It had been storing waste and its volume had exceeded the dump's capacity it was about to burst and rain accelerated the process," Yin said.

The landslide overturned vehicles, engulfed parts of houses, and buried everything in its path. "Our villagers are still searching for the six missing people," said Jia Zhenlong, a 32-year-old Zhangzai villager.

Both of Jia's legs were fractured in the landslide, and he has been admitted to the People's Hospital of Xiangfen. His wife, who suffered a head injury, is in the hospital too. But their 2-year-old son is missing.

Jia said the scenes in his village were horrifying. "Rocks and mud were flowing down, swallowing everything."

The mine owner and eight others have been detained for questioning, and several local officials removed from their posts after the disaster.

Many of the dead are migrant workers, making it difficult to identify them, rescuers said.

About 6,000 people were killed in the country's accident-plagued mineral industry last year. There are about 9,000 mine tailing dams in China, from where some dam bursts have been reported in recent years.