China landslide: Man rescued alive in Shenzhen after 60 hours

A man buried in rubble for more than 60 hours after a landslide hit an area of Shenzhen in China, has been pulled out alive.

The landslide, which struck early on Sunday, engulfed more than 30 buildings in an industrial district.

Rescuers found their first body - the only confirmed death - on Tuesday, leaving more than 70 missing.

The landslide happened when a huge man-made mound of earth and construction waste collapsed, after heavy rains.

Thousands of people have been involved in the rescue efforts.

The 19-year-old survivor was found at 03:30 local time on Wednesday (19:30 GMT Tuesday) under a collapsed building and is now receiving medical treatment, reported state news agency Xinhua.

He has been named as Tian Zeming, a migrant worker from Chongqing in south-western China.

About 900 people were evacuated on Sunday as waves of soil and debris rolled across the district and sparked an explosion at a natural gas pipeline.

The landslide eventually blanketed a vast area of 380,000 sq m (455,000 sq yards) - the equivalent of about 50 football fields. Some areas were covered with up to 10m (32ft) of mud.

The Ministry of Land and Resources said a mountain of earth and construction waste had been piled up against the local hill during the past two years.

"The pile was too big, the pile was too steep, leading to instability and collapse,'' the ministry said.

State media has reported that a district government report in January warned of a "catastrophe" at the dump, which it said was made up of 1 million cubic metres of waste.

Local resident Yi Jimin agreed the disaster was not an act of nature.

"Heavy rains and a collapse of a mountain are natural disasters, but this wasn't a natural disaster, this was man-made,'' he said.
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This is China's fourth major disaster in a year, beginning with a deadly stampede in Shanghai on New Year's Eve, followed by a cruise ship capsize on the Yangtze River and massive explosions at a chemicals warehouse in Tianjin that killed more than 170 people.