Mao County: Frustration grew on Monday among family members of victims of a landslide that buried a mountain village in southwestern China, with some complaining about a lack of information and asking why they had not been moved from an area prone to land slips.
At least 93 people remain missing, along with 10 confirmed dead, after a landslide crashed down on the village of Xinmo, in mountainous Sichuan province, as dawn broke on Saturday.
The government has sent some 3,000 rescuers, along with equipment, to the area and has promised to do all it can to look for survivors while restricting access for safety reasons.
The government of Mao county, where the village is located, posted on Monday drone video footage of the disaster zone, showing a dozen or so mechanical diggers shifting through a vast landscape of rubble, and promising to release updated information in a timely manner.
About 100 family members, unhappy with what they said was limited information, met with government officials at a nearby primary school, saying they wanted to go back home, were concerned about the rebuilding process and whether it would be done by winter, and what would happened to children orphaned.
"These government officials have been lying to us these past three days," a middle aged man from Xinmo village who has several relatives buried, told Reuters after the meeting, declining to give his name.
"They told us we could go back yesterday morning but they kept delaying and delaying giving us all kinds of excuses. They told us a central government official was going to come to visit us. He showed up and didn't even bother to speak to us."
Another relative said the government should have moved them out of an area they knew was prone to landslides.
"There have been landslides before but no one has ever suggested we move. The government knows its dangerous to live in these kinds of villages and yet they do nothing," said the elderly man, who also would not provide his name.
The official China Daily cited Xu Qiang, a disaster expert at the Ministry of Land and Resources, as saying large-scale relocations in the area were difficult.
"Many of the villagers have been living here for generations and seen no major geological disasters," Xu said. "This is their home and livelihood and it is very difficult to convince them to leave, specially when you only have a hypothesis and predictions." Heavy rain triggered the landslide, authorities have said.
Sichuan province is also prone to earthquakes, including an 8.0 magnitude tremor in central Sichuan's Wenchuan county in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.
Mao county sits next to Wenchuan. State media says the mountainside which collapsed onto the village had been weakened by the 2008 temblor.
Hopes dim in search for 93 missing
Rescuers kept digging through rocks and earth for more than 90 people still missing, but some relatives lost hope of finding them alive.
At least 10 people have been confirmed dead, a day after the avalanche of rocks buried 62 homes in Xinmo, a once-picturesque mountain village nestled by a river in Sichuan province, the local government said.
Only three survivors - a couple and their one-month-old baby - have been found since heavy rain brought down a side of the mountain early Saturday.
The official Xinhua news agency cited geological experts at the site as saying the chance of finding any survivors "was really slim".
Huo Chunlai, wearing a lace-brimmed sunhat, returned from the affected site on foot. Her cousin and two aunts lived in Xinmo. She said locals asked rescuers to stop the search.
"There's no hope they're alive," Huo said.
"The house is in one place here but the people who were inside were dragged way out over there. They're not in the same place any more. The landslide washed away the people all over the place. You simply can't find them any more."
You Sunfang and her husband rode five hours on a motorbike from another village to get news about her uncle, but police would not let them into the site.
"If he had lived on the edges maybe there would have been hope. But he lived right in the middle of the slope where the landslide came down," she said, wiping away tears.
At least half a dozen red excavators removed debris at the base of the grim and grey slope on Sunday as rescuers in orange jumpsuits searched between rocks for a second day.
Some 3,000 workers with life-detection instruments and sniffer dogs were taking part in the search, state media said.
Yang Kaichun, a woman wearing a pink beaded veil over her hair who brought food to the rescuers, was pessimistic.
"The debris is so deep, everyone they dig out will be dead," she said.
The landslide blocked a two-kilometre stretch of river and 1.6 kilometres of road. Rescuers found a droopy-eyed white dog on the rubble, apparently looking for its owner, according to state broadcaster CGTN.
Authorities reduced the number of people reported dead from 15 to 10 and the missing from 118 to 93, saying that some who had been unaccounted for earlier had been traced.
With inputs from AFP and Reuters
