Already 32 people have been declared either dead or missing in landslides brought on by incessant torrential rains in the Yangtze River basin since the weekend.
“The missing have little chance of surviving because the landslide came right down on top of the place where these people were gathering,” A Ying, an official in Sichuan’s Danba county, told AFP.
Some 51 tourists and local Tibetan song and dance performers were believed to have gathered at a way station in Shukazi village on Friday night when the landslide from the side of the 4,000 meter (13,200 feet) Qiongshangou Mountain came crashing down on them.
Two bodies have already been found. Another 71 people stranded by the landslide were rescued Monday.
Officials from the Ganzi Tibetan Minority Prefexture, where Danba county is located, told the China Daily that if the 49 missing were found dead then the landslide would be one of the most fatal in Chinese history.
“There were five people in the tourist group, four from Shanghai, and a driver from Chengdu,” A Ying said.
“When the group arrived, the director of a local rest station invited native Tibetan villagers to dance and sing for the tourists.”
The massive landslide also crashed down on the Dadu River, a tributary of the Yangtze, damming it for some two kilometers (1.24 miles) upstream, she said.
Meanwhile, along the Yangtze River in central Hubei province 12 people were missing and 12 others were confirmed dead in a landslide that hit Qianjianping village on Sunday morning.
“Rescuers said although the chance of survival of the 12 missing people were slim, the search would continue,” Xinhua news agency said.
Up river from the Hubei tragedy in Chongqing municipality, six people were killed and two seriously injured in a Sunday landslide in Fengjie city.
