Recently, a landslide occurred in Jinping Village, Yunlian County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province, with authorities reporting that 29 people are currently missing. Villagers described the entire mountainside sliding down, engulfing everything in a cloud of dust for about ten minutes, with large rocks tumbling down.
At around 11:50 on February 8th, a sudden landslide took place in Jinping Village, Muai Town, Yunlian County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province. As of February 9th, the official statement from Yibin City, Sichuan Province mentioned that as of 24:00 on the 8th, 10 households and 1 production building were buried, with two injured individuals identified as Mr. Zhou, 58 years old, and Mr. Rao, 11 years old. They were taken to the hospital, and Mr. Zhou was diagnosed with multiple fractured ribs on the left side, lung contusion, and a comminuted fracture of the midshaft of the right femur. He is currently in critical care. Mr. Rao suffered soft tissue damage to the left knee.
Currently, there are still 29 people missing, and the final number of casualties is yet to be confirmed. During the incident, reports initially suggested that the number of missing persons could be as high as over 30 individuals.
According to a report by Xinjing News, a local villager Mr. Huang was at the foot of the mountain at the time of the landslide and witnessed the whole event, describing how “the entire mountainside slid down, with dust filling the air for about ten minutes, and large rocks kept sliding down intermittently.”
Another villager from a village opposite the site of the incident heard a loud sound, went outside to assess the situation, and observed rocks sliding down from a height of several hundred meters, some as large as fists, with the landslide spreading across a width of several tens of meters.
“Many villagers grabbed tools such as iron shovels to rescue people, but their efforts were too small,” said one villager. After the accident, Mr. Huang also climbed the mountain barehanded to clear debris for about an hour.
In response to this tragic event, a report by Jiemian News quoted villagers who mentioned that signs of a landslide had been noticed in the second half of last year but were not taken seriously.
Several villagers pointed out that a nearby coal mine, Jinjiu Coal Mine, had been conducting underground coal mining operations for a long time. Villagers believed that the underground cavities were gradually expanding, and as early as the second half of last year, they noticed signs of landslides, with rocks even rolling down to block roads. However, the local authorities only took simple protective measures on the roads, such as enclosing parts of the road with wire mesh, without informing villagers to evacuate.