TAINING COUNTY, China, May 8 (UPI) — At least 41 construction workers are missing after a landslide Sunday at a construction site for a hydroelectric power plant in southeastern China.
The incident occurred after eight inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours last weekend in China’s southeastern Fujian Province.
Seven people were injured, Xinhua news agency reported. The agency originally reported 34 were missing.
Mud and rocked flowed downhill, burying a temporary shed serving as a dormitory and damaging its offices.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is asking for “maximum efforts” in the rescue of the missing workers and treatment of the injured.
He has also urged better local monitoring and safety checks.
A professional rescue team is headed to the site with big equipment and life detectors. Also experts from Beijing and east China’s Hefei City are on their way.
In December 2015, a landslide in the southern city of Shenzhen killed 77. The Chinese government blamed violations of construction safety rules and several officials were arrested.
