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China Landslide Kills 34, Traps Hundreds

Rescuers search for survivors after mud sweeps through Shanxi valley

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 9, 2008 5:54 AM CDT

(Newser) – Rescuers are frantically searching through rubble for survivors of a landslide in northern China that killed at least 34 people, the AP reports. Hundreds are feared missing after a reservoir of mining waste collapsed in the northern province of Shanxi, sending a wall of thick sludge sweeping through a valley and burying buildings. The mine owner and eight others have been detained.

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A man looks at the aftermath of a mud slide triggered by heavy rain in Xiangfen county in north China's Shanxi province Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. (AP Photo)

Rescuers search for survivors in houses hit by mud-rock flow at the Tashan Mine in Xiangfen County under Linfen City, north China's Shanxi Province, on Monday September 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Jiang Hongjing)

Rescuers work in the silt after a mud slide triggered by heavy rain hit Xiangfen County in China's Shanxi province Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Color China Photo)

An automobile is seen upside down in the mud-rock flow triggered by heavy rain in Xiangfen county in north China's Shanxi province Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. (AP Photo)

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It is an illegal company that was using the abandoned dump to get rid of its production waste. The amount stored far exceeded the capacity of the space.
- Wang Dexue, deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

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China Landslide Kills 34, Traps Hundreds