Report: 26 killed in China landslide

BEIJING -- A landslide buried an iron ore plant and several homes, killing 26 people and leaving dozens missing in a valley in southwestern China, state television said Saturday.

CCTV reported that 19 miners and seven others were killed in the landslide Friday in Wulong county. Rescuers saved seven people, three of whom were seriously injured but in stable condition.

Fifty-two people were missing, including 27 workers buried in the mine, said an official with the propaganda office of Wulong, who would only give her surname, Zhu.

The missing also included 21 farmers, three passers-by and a teacher, CCTV said.

More than 500 rescuers were searching for survivors, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

A rescuer search for survivors at the site where a landslide occurred Friday in Wulong county in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Saturday June 6, 2009. A landslide buried an iron ore plant and several homes, killing at least 26 people and leaving dozens missing in a valley in southwestern China, state television said Saturday. (AP Photo) ** CHINA OUT **

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao ordered local authorities to "spare no efforts" to save those buried, Xinhua said.

Rescuers were also digging a channel to relieve a barrier lake that formed when the landslide blocked a river, CCTV said.

Densely populated Chongqing is rich in iron ore, natural gas and other mineral resources, and industrial accidents are common.

An official with the Chongqing work safety supervision bureau, who would give only his surname Dong because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the landslide did not appear to be related to mining activities.

Similar landslides have been reported around China, including one last year where at least 277 people were killed when a shoddy holding reservoir burst and a three-story wave of mud and iron-mining waste inundated a valley in Shanxi province in northern China.