SORROWFUL WAITING: A local woman watches in despair as an excavator digs through landslide debris on June 8 (LIU CHAN)

At least nine people have died and 63 are still missing from a massive June 5 landslide in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. A local government spokesman said the landslide buried two entrances to a Jiwei Mountain iron ore plant and 12 houses in Tiekuang Township, Wulong County, about 170 km southeast of central Chongqing.

A geological investigation found that the entire east side of Jiwei Mountain collapsed 600 meters, filling a 200-meter-wide valley, where a tributary of the Yangtze River runs through.

Despite drizzling rain and thick fog, hundreds of rescuers continued their search with drilling machines and excavators for those still missing after the landslide. Dozens of miners, villagers and a number of students and their parents who were walking near the mine are among those still missing.

"We will do our best and use every second to rescue them," said a spokesman at the rescue headquarters, who cautioned that the mountain was still quite unstable and the rescue operation was dangerous.

Real cause?

The cause of the landslide is still under investigation, said a source at the Chongqing Work Safety Supervision Bureau.

Natural factors including bad weather and geological conditions might be the main cause of the disaster, said Bo Xilai, Secretary of Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Wulong County, where the incident happened, lies deep within the unstable karst mountains. The latest heavy rains may have eroded the mountains to a point that triggered the slide, Bo said.

But survivors claimed excessive drilling and mining were to blame.

The privately owned iron ore mine, named Sanlian, has a daily capacity of 100 tons. Since 2001, it has neglected government warnings to stop production because of "possible geological dangers," several miners said.

According to a local villager of Tiekuang Village, there appeared many cracks in Jiwei Mountain in recent years because of excessive drilling and mining.

Many miners said they saw rocks rolling down the valley days before the landslide but the owners ordered them to continue drilling.

Su Xianyun, one of the mine's three owners, is reportedly in police custody.

A staff member with Wulong's land and resources bureau said Sanlian may not have the proper mining and work safety licenses. The person would not elaborate on the claim.

Taking efforts

Soon after the disaster, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao gave local authorities an order to spare no efforts to save those buried in the fatal landslide.

Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang arrived at the site in Wulong County at 5 a.m. on June 6 to oversee the efforts. The massive operation has swollen to include more than 500 rescuers to search for those trapped in the rubble.

According to Qu Qian, Director of Chongqing Municipal Health Bureau, 27 ambulances and 91 medical workers are serving at the landslide site. Three medical experts sent by the Ministry of Health to bolster efforts arrived in Chongqing on June 6.

Early on June 7, rescuers completed a 28-km road to the site for large machinery such as excavators and bulldozers. Previously, there was only a simple village road.

"It has taken medical staff an additional 30 minutes to complete the one-hour journey from Wulong because the road has been blocked," said Qu.

Based on aerial surveys, experts estimated the volume of the landslide debris at about 12 million cubic meters, said Ai Yang, a spokesman for the Chongqing Municipal Government.

Rescuers believe that, of the 63 total missing, only 27 miners, trapped 150-200 meters below ground with millions of tons of solid rock above their heads, may survive the landslide. Authorities estimated that the air and water supply in the mine could support those trapped for five to seven days.

Rescuers carried out a second explosion on June 7, after the first one on June 6 night, to enable the drilling of holes to send food and air to the miners.

Meanwhile, the geological investigation team warned that the landslide debris has blocked the river flow, leading to concerns that rising waters on a landslide-formed lake would lead to a bursting of the dam, flooding communities below.

The local government has relocated 85 people whose homes were threatened by the barrier lake formed by the landslide and those in the area downstream from it, Ai said.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has redirected 6 million yuan ($878,477) to the county for relief work. The money will mainly be used as benefits for the victims' families and relocation of residents, said Ai.