10 Aug 2010

At least 700 killed in China landslide

10:44 pm on 10 August 2010

More than 700 people are now known to have died in a massive landslide in north-west China - making it one of the deadliest incidents so far in the country's worst flooding in a decade.

A frantic search is continuing for the more than 1,000 people still missing, the BBC reports. Buildings were hit by a wall of mud so strong that buildings seven storeys high crumpled like paper.

A 52-year-old man was pulled alive from the rubble more than 50 hours after the disaster, and other rescue teams say they have heard "very faint" signs of life elsewhere, the state media reported.

The death toll was revised upwards on Tuesday from 337, and officials say that figure is expected to rise in the coming hours and days.