Forty-seven people were buried in a landslide in China’s southwestern Yunnan province on Monday.
The landslide hit Liangshui village just before 6 a.m. Liangshui is under the town of Tangfang in Zhenxiong County.
Reports indicate that around 18 households were buried in the landslide, and that more than 200 people were “urgently evacuated” from the area.
Authorities have deployed 200 rescue workers as well as dozens of fire engines and other equipment to the area.
Xinhua reports that there are effort to establish what happened. However, footage shared on social media by a local broadcaster showed emergency workers in orange jumpsuits and helmets picking through the rubble of collapsed structures.
Landslides are common in Yunnan, a remote region of China where steep mountain ranges butt against the Himalayan plateau.
China has experienced a string of devastating natural disasters in recent months.
The landslide is coming just over a month after China’s worst earthquake in years struck the northwest in a remote region between Gansu and Qinghai province.
At least 149 people were killed in the 6.2-magnitude temblor that struck on December 18, reducing homes to rubble and triggering heavy mudslides that inundated two settlements in Qinghai province.
It left over 1,000 injured and more than 14,000 homes were destroyed.
