Shenzhen (AsiaNews) - A young migrant has been pulled alive and safe after being buried under rubble for 60 hours created by the disastrous landslide that hit a district of Shenzhen three days ago. Rescue teams pulled Tian Zemin, 19, a migrant Chongqing to safety at 4 am this morning. Tian said that next to him was another migrant, but he was already dead.
Rescue teams worked through the night, after criticism from local people when they had stopped operations the night before from 11 pm to 4 am, losing precious hours to look for those who had been buried alive.
The authorities have not yet published official figures, but there are at least 76 people missing. The Ministry of the territory launched an investigation into the incident, caused by man and neglect: a mountain as tall as a 20 story building had accumulated over the years, made of earth and construction debris. Weakened by its increasing height and rains, the mountain of mud and debris crashed down over factories and workers dormitories.
Accidents the result of carelessness or neglect of safety measures are very common in China. A year ago, on New Year’s eve, in Shanghai a stampede in the crowd left 36 people dead; in June, a ferry sank in the Yangtze River, killing more than 400 people; in August in Tianjin there was an explosion in some warehouses that contained poisonous chemicals, killing more than 170 people. Added to these are all the industrial accidents and those in the nation’s mines.