Rescue, search operations continuing in Jiangxi's mudslide-hit Mingkeng village

Rescue teams began thorough search operations on Sunday after overcoming treacherous conditions to reach the core area of the mudslide-hit Mingkeng Village in Ji'an City, east China's Jiangxi Province.

The mudslide struck in the early hours of Saturday after days of torrential rain triggered by Typhoon Saudel.

The hardest-hit area was the Shixia group of Mingkeng Village in the town of Gaoping, with power and communication cut off and road access destroyed.

Villagers managed to report the disaster by satellite phone at 06:40. Fire and rescue teams from Ji'an, Ganzhou and other nearby areas set out immediately, but their journey proved extremely difficult.

"We encountered multiple landslides along the way, with some of them blocking the road. So we had to stop and clear the road. Since the incident site is quite far from any urban area, it was already past 10:00 by the time we arrived at the scene. Once we got there, we found it was simply impossible for us to get in as the only road leading into the village had already been washed away,"said Zhao Guoxia, a rescuer.

Rescue teams cleared the road while trekking and finally reached the core area at around 11:20 Saturday. They used life detectors, demolition tools, drones along with two search dogs to search the debris of destroyed buildings.

They found two villagers trapped in a collapsed house on another hillside.

"The volume of landslide debris at the site was enormous. The mudslide had buried collapsed concrete slabs and various debris beneath the mud and silt, blocking the rescue access routes and severely hampering operations. Several villagers' self-built houses were completely destroyed. Right in the middle of our rescue efforts on-site, around noon, another moderate-scale collapse occurred all of a sudden," said Miao Cheng, another rescuer.

Rescuers were forced to evacuate to a safe area and wait until the situation stabilized. Additional teams arrived at 16:00 Saturday, conducting real-time drone reconnaissance and assessing the damaged road sections.

As of the latest update, the mudslide and landslides have left three people dead and nine missing.

Rescue, search operations continuing in Jiangxi's mudslide-hit Mingkeng village

International media on Saturday and Sunday visited the core disaster area of mudslide-hit Gyirong Port on the China-Nepal border in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.

The reporters from the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Brazil among other countries and regions visited the area and learned about the disaster situation, ongoing rescue operations, and progress in recovery and reconstruction.

"China has this particular the capacity to address this kind of crisis. You have thousands of workers trained for this and you have machines made for this kind of efforts. And of course, our heart goes to them for the kind of work they are putting," said KJM Varma Mokanda, a reporter from Press Trust of India.

The mudslide, triggered by a high-altitude glacier collapse in Nepal on Aug 26, had left 43 people dead and 519 others missing at the border port as of 18:00 Saturday, the emergency response and rescue headquarters told a press conference on Sunday.

As of 18:00 Saturday, more than 2,500 people and over 500 vehicles had been deployed for the rescue, and more than 1,000 flights of drones had air-dropped 5.43 tons of supplies, officials said at the press conference.

International media visit mudslide-hit Gyirong Port