Rescue teams working through the wreckage of last week’s deadly landslide in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing have recovered three more bodies in recent days, pushing the confirmed death toll to 11. Chinese authorities announced Thursday that 50 people remain missing.
According to a statement from the county government, the search operation is ongoing, but rescuers have found no recent indications that additional survivors may be buried in the debris. The landslide struck Pengshui County, located at the outer edge of Chongqing, on Friday.
Eight bodies were discovered shortly after the collapse, which buried more than 10 residential buildings. An additional 10 people sustained injuries in the disaster.
Officials described the recovery effort as “exceptionally challenging,” citing the enormous amount of debris — including numerous large boulders — that came down in the slide. Rescue crews have deployed heavy machinery and drones, and have resorted to blasting some of the larger boulders into smaller pieces to aid in the search, the county government said.
Pengshui County sits in the southeastern portion of Chongqing, near the borders of Hubei and Guizhou provinces.
