Rescuers work at the site of a landslide in Liangshui village, Tangfang town, Zhaotong city, Yunnan province, Jan 22, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING/KUNMING - Chinese President Xi Jinping demanded full-scale efforts in search and rescue of missing people on Monday following a landslide in Zhaotong in Yunnan province that buried dozens and killed seven.

Xi Jinping said fforts should be made to lend assistance to the families of the victims and properly relocate the affected population

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in an instruction after the disaster occurred early Monday in Liangshui village of Zhenxiong county in Zhaotong. 

The landslide buried 18 houses and left at least 40 missing. Local authorities later said that two people previously reported missing have been found and confirmed dead.

Xi ordered every measure to minimize casualties, enhancing monitoring and early warning and preventing the occurrence of secondary disasters.

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Efforts should be made to lend assistance to the families of the victims and properly relocate the affected population, he said.

Xi added that natural disasters, traffic accidents and work safety incidents are prone to occur with the Spring Festival approaching and due to the negative influence of the cold waves.

Rescuers work at the site of a landslide in Liangshui village, Tangfang town, Zhaotong city, Yunnan province, Jan 22, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

He asked relevant regions and departments to screen potential risks and shoulder their responsibilities to prevent major casualties and ensure the safety of people's lives and property.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang has also urged rescuers to work against time to search for missing people and try their utmost to reduce casualties, stressing that people at risk should be transferred to safe places as soon as possible and people's lives and property should be fully secured.

More than 200 rescuers together with 33 firefighting vehicles and 10 loading machines have been combing the debris to search for the missing

The landslide took place at around 6 am. Over 200 residents were evacuated as the provincial commission for disaster reduction activated a Level-III emergency response for disaster relief.

 "At around 6 am I heard the rumbling of landslide. Every now and then there was a sound of collapse, accompanied by the clatter of falling rocks," the villager Deng Jieshu recalled.

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Deng, who was about two kilometers from the site of the landslide, saw at the scene that some houses were all buried, while some were crushed.

"Now rescuers have arrived, and about 200 of us have been relocated to a local primary school," Deng said.

More than 200 rescuers together with 33 firefighting vehicles and 10 loading machines have been combing the debris to search for the missing.

In this image taken from a video, rescuers work at the site of a landslide in Liangshui village, Tangfang town, Zhaotong city, Yunnan province, Jan 22, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Meanwhile, Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing and Minister of Emergency Management Wang Xiangxi have been to Yunnan to guide the rescue work. 

Upon receiving news of the landslide, Wang immediately arranged for search and rescue operations to commence, asking local authorities to enhance monitoring at the site, according to a media release from the ministry.

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The release said 812 members of the national comprehensive fire and rescue team have arrived at the site with 174 vehicles.

Another 102 members of the country's national rescue team, which usually deals with workplace accidents, and 33 employees from the China Anneng Construction Group Corporation have also joined the search and rescue effort, it noted.

Yunnan, a mountainous border province where landslides are prone to occur, is among several of China's southern provinces currently hit by a cold wave. Local weather forecast said there will be light snow in the town on Tuesday, with the lowest temperature expected to reach minus three degrees Celsius. 

With Xinhua inputs