Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - A new environmental disaster struck the southwestern province of Yunnan, where this morning a landslide buried a small elementary school and two farm buildings. The landslide killed 18 children and one adult who has not yet been identified.
The tragedy occurred in the village of Zhenhe, on the border with the province of Guizhou. The official Xinhua news agency reported the event. The area is the same hit on 7 September by two earthquakes of 5.6 magnitude that left 81 people dead, another 820 people injured and 201,000 displaced. Immediately after the quakes, the area was fenced off for almost 3 weeks and all activities were stopped there.
The young students were in school - despite it being a national holiday in China - to make up the time lost during the forced closures imposed by the earthquake. The Youfang elementary school had remained closed until September 25, and the local authorities had ordered the teachers to resume activities in spite of the Mid-Autumn Festival in order not to arrive unprepared for final exams.
A user of Sina.com, the popular microblogging site increasingly used by the population to denounce the failings of the communist authorities, wrote: "Are the officials all on vacation? Why was there no alert? Why were there students in school during the holidays?".