No survivors day after 83 buried in China landslide–Xinhua

In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, earthmovers remove rocks and mud on the scene where a landslide hit a mining area in Maizhokunggar County of Lhasa, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, on Friday, March 29, 2013. The large landslide trapped dozens of workers in the gold mining area, state media reported. (AP

BEIJING–Chinese authorities said no survivors had yet been found 28 hours after 83 copper mine workers were buried in a huge landslide in Tibet despite a major high-altitude search operation, state media reported.

“Rescuers have not yet found survivors or bodies,” authorities were quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying, referring to the search in Maizhokunggar county, east of Tibetan capital Lhasa.

Officials made the grim announcement at a press conference at 10 a.m. Saturday, reported by state media nearly two hours later. The landslide struck at about 6 a.m. Friday (2200 GMT Thursday).

Hundreds of rescuers battled difficult terrain in the hunt for survivors after a vast three-kilometer-long section of land, with a volume of two million cubic meters, crashed down a slope, covering the miners’ camp.

China’s new president Xi Jinping and new premier Li Keqiang had ordered “top efforts” to rescue the victims, Xinhua said.

Mountainous regions of Tibet are prone to landslides, which can be exacerbated by heavy mining activity.