Signs of life detected, rescuers race to find survivors

A rescue vehicle works on a debris of a factory building after a landslide occurred in Shenzhen. Strong signals of life have been detected on Monday. [Photo by Chai Hua/chinadaily.com.cn]

DIFFICULT RESCUE

Workers are racing against time, as signs of life were detected under the mud debris on Monday. With five excavators, rescuers were close to reaching the first floor of a buried office building on Monday evening.

They used cutting machines to dismantle the concrete structure after a large pit was dug .

"The rescue is extremely difficult with mud and silt filling up the excavation," said Cui Bo, a Guangdong firefighter at the scene.

The State Council, China's cabinet, dispatched a team of senior officials and experts, led by State Councilor Wang Yong, to Shenzhen on Monday to oversee rescue work.

"The landslide mass is too loose and aquiferous," said Liu Guonan, a researcher with the China Academy of Railway Sciences, who participated in the rescue. It is the first time he has seen a landslide on such scale in his 30 years of work.

"When we organize excavation with large machinery, we have to consider both the possible harm to the buried people and also secondary collapse which threatens rescue workers," said Yang Shengjun, head of the Shenzhen Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.