Shenzhen Landslide

[harimau]

Rubbish! now that Sun Ho is in charge divine intervention is inevitable.

Yes! China Wine is a flop! God is great!

 

[Leongsam]

Yes! China Wine is a flop! God is great!

China Wine was a great success!

 

[Hans168]

result of bribes paid to approving authority & engineers in SZ

 

[Faces]

Shenzhen landslide: man found alive under eight metres of rubble survived by ‘thinking of mother and eating sunflower seeds’

Tian Zeming, who was freed after being trapped for 67 hours, was ‘fortunate to escape with his life’, officials said

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 12:33pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 6:05pm

He Huifeng and Zhuang Pinghui
[email protected]
[email protected]

Survivor Tian Zeming, who was rescued on Wednesday morning after being buried beneath a collapsed building for 67 hours after a deadly landslide in Shenzhen on Sunday. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Migrant worker Tian Zeming survived while buried for 67 hours under eight metres of rubble following Sunday morning’s deadly landslide in Shenzhen by thinking of his mother and eating sunflower seeds and grapefruit.

He remained conscious throughout his ordeal and defiantly kept tapping with a stone to attract the attention of rescue workers.

Tian, 21, told rescuers, after they dug a hole down to just above his head on Wednesday morning, that throughout his ordeal he had kept thinking of his mother and told himself, “I must get out”.

However, it took rescuers another three hours to dig a second hole before he was set free.

He said he had been lucky that food, including sunflower seeds and grapefruit, fell into the hole with him after a huge avalanche of m&d and rubble crashed into at least 33 buildings at an industrial park in the city.

He was one of 76 people that had been reported still missing after the disaster, which has killed at least two people.

Tian, who had been partially covered by a door, said he had survived by eating the seeds and grapefruit, but had become dehydrated after being left without water, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

Medical staff tend to Tian Zeming after being pulled to safety 67 hours after Sunday’s deadly landslide in Shenzhen. Photo: SCMP Pictures

He was also able to breathe fresh air thanks to cracks running through the walks of the building.

Rescuers praised Tian for remaining determined to survive and frequently tapping with a stone to send signals to rescuers searching through the rubble above.

Tian Zeming is carefully carried to a waiting ambulance after being rescued on Wednesday. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Tian had been “fortunate to escape with his life’ after the building’s walls held firm, officials said.

Doctors said he was suffering from multiple broken bones, a crushed right leg, numerous cuts and grazes to his body, plus severe dehydration.

He later underwent four hours of surgery, as doctors battled to save his severely injured leg.

Rescue workers slowly lift Tian Zeming from the hole cut into the rubble. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Wang Guangming, president of Guangming district central hospital, said Tian was now in a stable condition following the surgery.

Tian, who had started working for Dejicheng Fine Hardware Company on the industrial estate only about 10 days ago, is so far the first, perhaps only, survivor of the most deadly landslide to hit Shenzhen for decades.

He found himself buried eight metres below the surface, alongside a workmate, after the landslide, but the workmate died before rescuers found them.

He was first located buried underground by fireman using three separate life detectors at about 3:30am on Wednesday, said Zhou Qiang, the official in charge of the rescue efforts.

Workers started to carefully drill holes into the m&d and debris that had buried the building.

They eventually reached the rooftop of the building after digging an eight-metre-deep hole.

“The rescuers saw a hand moving and reported this to their supervisors immediately,” Gao Cunyi, head of Guangdong firemen brigade, said at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

Rescue workers used lights while trying to free Tian Zeming from beneath an eight-metre-deep pile of rubble early on Wednesday morning. Photo: SCMP Pictures

“However, rescuing the person was extremely difficult because the hole [we had drilled] was exactly above his head. We had to dig another hole, about one metre away to his right.”

Although firemen were able to touch Tian’s hands after digging the first hole, his leg was still trapped by debris, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescuers spent another three hours painstakingly digging a second hole in the unstable rubble so they could get into a small area of the building that had not been crushed and lift the debris pinning his leg.

He was given oxygen and an intravenous drip during the rescue, before being taken to hospital on a stretcher.

No other signs of life were detected in the area where Tian was rescued.

However, rescuers, alerted by sounds of movement, later discovered a live chicken in another area of the site, which had survived under a huge concrete slab that had been buried six metres beneath rubble, Dahe Daily reported.

A firemen told the newspaper the chicken would be given a permanent home at the fire station because it represented a sign of hope.

Meanwhile, a team investigating the disaster was set up in Shenzhen on Wednesday by the State Council, the chief administrative authority.

The team, in charge of three expert panels focusing on land, work safety and disaster relief, is headed by Jiang Daming, Minister of Land and Resources.

Senior officials from other agencies, including the ministries of Public Security, Supervision and State Administration of Work Safety, plus representatives from Shenzhen municipal government also form part of the team.

 

[Faces]

Shenzhen landslide: 76 missing and only one body found as angry relatives and survivors criticise night-time suspension of rescue efforts

Identities of 73 confirmed as relatives claim work of rescuers halted from 11pm on Monday until 4am on Tuesday

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, 11:42am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 9:07am

He Huifeng and Li Jing

First survivor was found at the scene. Photo: Xinhua

Angry survivors and relatives of people that are still missing have criticised a five-hour suspension to rescue efforts following the deadly landslide on the outskirts of Shenzhen, as the body of the first victim was recovered early on Tuesday morning.

The grim discovery – reported by Xinhua news agency, without giving more details – came as the rescue command centre confirmed there was no potential danger of a secondary disaster after staff from China National Petroleum Corporation cleared the remaining natural gas in the nearby pipelines overnight.

Excavators continue to look for survivors at the site of the Shenzhen landslide on Tuesday morning. Photo: Edward WongOfficials said on Monday that 85 people were missing from Sunday’s disaster, revised down from 91 earlier. Seven people were rescued.

Relatives of those that are missing questioned why rescue efforts were suspended from 11pm on Monday until 4am on Tuesday – the “golden hours” for finding survivors – despite the authorities promising that attempts to find survivors would go on throughout the night.

Some relatives said they had climbed over hills of m&d and rubble to get close to the scene of landslide at about 2am on Tuesday, only to find the excavators were idled.

The catastrophe struck the Hengtaiyu Industrial Park in Guangming New District, Guangdong, on Sunday morning.

At least 33 buildings were battered or buried by the huge landslip that blanketed more than 380,000 square metres, according to the Shenzhen government.

Zhou Suqing managed to escape the deadly landslide, but her husband was buried alive. Photo: SCMP Pictures

One woman survivor, Zhou Suqing, 48, said she had had a narrow escape as she fled from the tide of m&d as it approached, but her husband, Hu Wenhua, 49, had been buried alive.

“Dozens of people were trying to run away from the m&d, some were lucky enough to be pushed out by the impact of the landslide, but others were buried under the m&d,” she said.

Rescuer workers sleep on the floor after taking a break at the scene of Sunday’s landslide in Shenzhen. Photo: Edward Wong

“I wanted to communicate the information about where these people were probably buried to the rescue teams, but I had no chance to speak to them,” Hu said.

Relatives of the people that remain missing were separated at several medical support areas near the scene, and complained about tightened security force on Tuesday morning.

They said being separated from other relatives meant they were unable to share information.

Attempts to post photographs of the rescue efforts on social media platform, such as Weibo, had been blocked, relatives said.

Some relatives said they did not dare leave the site in case they were prevented from returning because of the heavy police presence.

“Nobody has told us where we can stay, or where to get information and from whom,” one angry relative said.

Hundreds of dump trucks have been lined up near to Dayanshan Tunnel, about 1km away from the site of the landslide, waiting to clear away the m&d.

A South China Morning Post reporter found that every road leading to the site has been blocked by police.

As rescuers recovered the first body on Tuesday, the Post reporter saw one member of the rescue team looking for spare face masks at a medical support areas.

“Please give us many masks as you have … young soldiers cannot bear this …” the team member said.

 

[Faces]

After Shenzhen landslide, residents of China’s big cities wonder when disaster will strike next

Moving to a first-tier urban centre on the mainland once guaranteed a better life, but not any more

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 12:39am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 11:54am

Li Jing
[email protected]

A woman looks for her missing sister and her sister's child at the site of landslide at an industrial park in Shenzhen on December 21. Photo: Xinhua

The three worst man-made accidents on the mainland this year all took place in its largest cities, where planners struggle to accommodate an expanding middle class and waves of migrant workers.

The tragedies have led some mainlanders to ask why China’s leading urban centres – which are supposed to provide their residents with a better life – have become so dangerous.

China started the new year on a horrific note. At least 36 people were killed in a stampede on the Bund in Shanghai on December 31. Overcrowding and a lack of safety measures were blamed.

Another blow came on August 12 when explosive materials stored at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin ignited, triggering twin blasts that shattered windows as far as 2km away. The official death toll was more than 170, with first responders accounting for many of the fatalities. Investigators found that the owner of the facility, Ruihai International Logistics, had contravened safety regulations.

Smoke billows behind rows of burned-out cars at the site of a series of explosions in Tianjin, on August 13. Photo: AFP

Then on Sunday, a construction-waste dumping site collapsed, sending a wave of m&d across an industrial park in Shenzhen. Seventy-six people remained missing.

Rescuers continue to pick through the debris in the hopes of finding survivors perhaps trapped among the 33 destroyed buildings. The park sits on the edge of Shenzhen, the mega city held out as a shining example of the benefits of economic reform.

“Two years ago, a Beijing resident drowned in his car when the city was hit by a thunderstorm,” one person wrote on Weibo. “This year, people strolling on a Shanghai street were crushed to death. In Tianjin, one could be killed while just sleeping at home. And as 2015 nears its end, some people are buried by m&d and rocks while at work! When will the cities become safe?”

Another commentator said: “These cities are the most modernised, and are the most successful examples of China’s reform and opening-up. But the rare and unprecedented accidents this year are raising the question: where will development lead our country?”

Qi Zhiqiang, a lecturer on environment, health and safety at Nanjing University, called the Shenzhen landslide a “city’s shame”. It was a “human-made disaster” that had causes that were “kept in the dark for a long time”, he said.

The three accidents all bear similar hallmarks – poor management oversight, lax planning and weak enforcement of existing laws.

In the Bund stampede, most of the victims were young people in their 20s going to watch a New Year light show. Government agencies under Huangpu district were later blamed for failing to alert the public that the show had been called off.

The crowds that gathered on the Bund in Shanghai the night of the deadly stampede on December 31 last year. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The local police department was accused of severely underestimating the expected turnout – the crowd swelled to 310,000 people at one point, but only 600 police officers had been deployed to maintain order.

In the Tianjin disaster, Ruihai Logistics was found to have handled dangerous chemicals without a licence, state media reported. Company executives admitted they had made use of their connections to get fire safety approvals.

Similarly in Shenzhen, mainland media has reported the company that won the bid to build and operate the waste dump was not qualified for the job.

Central authorities have yet to publish the investigation result of the Tianjin blasts, more than four months of the accidents.

Luwei Property Management Company did not list handling waste dumps in its business registration but nevertheless won the bid, and contracted the project out to another firm, Yixianglong Investment Development Company. The property management company has won numerous government contracts over the years.

Mainland media also reported that the permit to run that site, classified as a temporary dump site, expired in February. A deputy director of Yixianglong was taken away by the police yesterday .

In the wake of such man-made disasters, the central government has been quick to announce responsible parties would be punished. But at the same time, the leadership has been clamping down on the spread of information about large public incidents on the internet.

Some people have expressed fears that weak government accountability will only lead to more such accidents in the future.

“What startles me most is you no longer see the same anger and questions online after the Shenzhen landslide. The public just seems to go along with their own life now,” said a Shanghai resident.

 

[Faces]

Before and after photos of Shenzhen landslide

China Daily, December 24, 2015

National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASG) on Wednesday published three-dimensional images of the landslide that hit an industrial park in South China's Shenzhen city Sunday.

Three-dimensional images show the industrial park before and after the landslide. [Photo from NASG]

The landslide occurred at around 11: 40 on Sunday, after a huge pile of construction wastes from a hill collapsed, burying or damaging 33 building.

Search operations continued on Wednesday as more than 70 people remain missing.

 

[Faces]

The landslide extent can be clearly seen in this image which has given a full view of the site.
The images have been provided to the relevant departments as data support for scientific rescue, judging disaster situation and reconstruction. [Photo from NASG]




​

 

[Faces]

Shenzhen landslide: First picture of survivor pulled from rubble three days after disaster, as Chinese police detain vice-president of firm running dump site

Teenage male migrant worker, who was pulled from m&d at 6.40am, now recovering in hospital

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 12:28am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 11:55am

He Huifeng, Mimi Lau and Li Jing

Rescue workers pull the survivor Tian Zeming from the debris early on Wednesday morning following Sunday’s landslide in Shenzhen. Photo: Xinhua

Rescuers dug out the first survivor of the Shenzhen landslide disaster early on Wednesday morning after three days of searching, state media reported.

The survivor, a man identified by the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily as migrant worker Tian Zeming, 19, from Chongqing, had been trapped for about 67 hours since Sunday morning’s disaster.

He was conscious when he was pulled from the debris at 6.40am on Wednesday after initially being located by rescuers at about 3.30am, China Central Television reported.

Tian, who is now recovering in hospital, was among the list of 76 people that were reported missing following the disaster, which was released by the authorities on Tuesday.

The first dead body, identified only as being male, was recovered on Tuesday, but no further details were given.

This discovery came as the rescue command centre said there was no danger of a second disaster at the site, after workers from the China National Petroleum Corporation cleared natural gas in nearby pipelines overnight.

Police also detained a vice-president of Shenzhen Yixianglong Investment and Development on Tuesday afternoon and took away the firm’s computers, China National Radio reported. The firm owns the operation and management rights of the construction-waste dumping site in Hongao village outside Guangming district.

Tian was the first survivor found after three days of searching. Photo: Xinhua

At least 33 buildings were damaged by or buried under the landslide on Sunday that covered more than 380,000 square metres of land – the size of some 53 football pitches.

A Shenzhen government official yesterday said local community authorities were verifying residents’ identities.

The desperate families of other people still missing believe Tian’s rescue has offered some hope that other survivors will be found.

Zhou Suqing, 48, a migrant worker from Hunan, narrowly escaped the landslide, but her husband, Hu Wenhua, 49, was not so lucky.

She said she saw him being dragged down in the raging mudslide. “He was just behind me, but when I turned around to check on him, he was already buried under the m&d.

“I know the exact spot where he was covered. I kept trying to tell everyone in charge about it, but no one would take my words seriously,” Zhou said.

The place where Tian was found was likely to be close to the place where her husband and a dozen of other people were buried alive, she said.

Zhou and other relatives have urged the government to speed up its rescue efforts, but said they were now completely barred from getting close to the site of the landslide.

Yang Qingshan, whose aunt is still missing, said Tian’s rescue was a sign of hope for other people waiting for news.

The authorities needed to communicate closely with people that escaped the landslide, rather than blocking them from the area because they had first-hand information about where trapped people might be.

Rescue workers use excavators to dig through the debris for survivors on Tuesday after Sunday’s landslide in Shenzhen. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Rescue workers have continued their efforts to find survivors, identifying 16 critical digging zones as they used radar tools to scan for signs of life.

There were more than 4,000 rescuers on the ground on Tuesday – including some 2,100 armed police – as well as 190 excavators and 235 fire engines and ambulances.

The number of missing people was brought down to 76 from 85. Of them, 73 had been identified, most of them migrant workers from Henan, Hunan and other parts of Guangdong.

Rescuers pull Tian from the rubble. Photo: Xinhua

Survivors and victims’ families alike criticised what they saw as inadequate rescue efforts, even as relatives of those missing questioned why work was suspended from Monday 11pm until 4am on Tuesday despite the authorities’ promise that the efforts would go on through the night. The period is considered part of the “golden hours” for finding survivors.

Some relatives said they had climbed over mounds of m&d and rubble to get closer to the site of the landslide to see how the rescue work was progressing, only to find the excavators idle.

Some families were seen preparing a banner to push the local government to step up rescue efforts after their requests to retrieve their family members’ bodies went unanswered.

Tian, who was reportedly conscious when finally found by rescuers, receives medical treatment at a hospital in Shenzhen. Photo: Xinhua

Attempts to post photos of the rescue efforts on mainland social media platforms such as Weibo were blocked, the families said.

Some relatives said they had dared not leave the site on Tuesday in case they were prevented from returning because of the heavy police presence in the area. “No one has told us where we can stay or where to get information and from whom,” one angry relative said.

 

[Faces]

Shenzhen landslide: How China creates more waste than its dump sites can handle

Cities should have regulations in place to manage how construction materials are handled but lax oversight allows illegal operations to flourish

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 1:02am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015, 10:58am

Zhuang Pinghui
[email protected]

Ma Xingrui (front, third right), the municipal party secretary of Shenzhen, and other officials visit the site of the landslide in the southern city on December 21. Photo: Reuters

The collapsed dump in Shenzhen has reinvigorated calls to improve handling of construction waste, a persistent concern for policymakers in Shenzhen and other cities.

Some cities, such as Foshan in Guangdong and Changsha in Hunan province, have stepped up inspections of local dump sites to prevent similar tragedy.

Li Ying, an associate professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, said each city had its own system to handle construction waste. In theory, it should have regulations for each step in the process – from collecting it at the point of origin to recycling or dumping it. But in practice, trucks usually simply carry the waste late at night to points far out of town.

An urban management official in Jinan told Shandong news portal Iqilu.com that about a third of construction waste was sent to legal dump sites for proper treatment.

Another third was buried after the project was finished and the rest was often piled up close by because there was no appropriate site to accept the waste.

Only nine out of Jinan’s 44 waste dump sites with 30 million square metres of capacity, had enough room to accept materials for the upcoming year.

The cost of running a proper dump was high, with more than two employees needed to manage the site around the clock and maintain safety standards. Given those conditions, illegal ones prospered.

“Usually there is just one pit for trucks to unload. Safety is unlikely to be an issue,” the official said.

Even though the government recommends waste to be recycled, the two companies in Jinan that specialise in recycling receive enough waste to operate.

“We all know the waste comes from urban development,” an industry insider was quoted by Iqilu.com as saying.

“Illegal dumping occurs when more waste is produced than dump sites are built. It is like more cars trying to park in limited parking space.

“What happened in Shenzhen is an extreme case of fast development of the city that ignores effective logistics such as handling construction waste,” the insider said.

The Zhejiang branch of the China Democratic National Construction Association has filed a proposal to build more waste dump sites because what’s been generated by urban development has been piling around the province’s big cities, creating a safety hazard.

In Shenzhen, a Baoan district member of the Political Consultative Conference, Chen Kexin, has been pushing for more dump sites since 2008, saying the pace of the urbanisation drive has outpaced the capacity to handle the construction waste.

The Longhua new district said in a statement earlier this year that there were not enough construction waste dumps to cope with local construction projects. Illegal dumping occurred as a result and valleys and pits by roadsides and construction sites had become common choices for unauthorised handling.

The demand for construction waste dumps was so great that all sorts of means were used to get rid of it. In April, state-owned farmland comprising tens of thousands of square metres in Longhua district was turned into a waste dump site by the leasing company. Each truck paid 320 yuan (HK$383) to deposit one load and hundreds of vehicles arrived at night.

The waste piled up so high that it spilled from the sides, causing concerns during the rainy season.

Two years ago, 28 trucks from Shenzhen transporting construction waste were confiscated by traffic police in Dongguan. Drivers said the waste came from subway line construction or residential property development.

Dongguan police found that trucks, always numbering in the dozens, frequently transported waste after midnight and a small mountain would appear out of nowhere overnight. The only penalty at their disposal was for overloading.

 

[Faces]

After deadly Shenzhen landslide, a battle for answers at the heart of the tragedy

Authorities in the Chinese city throw up barrier after barrier to relatives and reporters trying to find out the fate of the missing and how the disaster was allowed to happen

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 24 December, 2015, 12:14am
UPDATED : Thursday, 24 December, 2015, 12:14am

He Huifeng
[email protected]

Chinese policemen with police dogs mount a patrol near the site of a landslide which hit an industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Photo: Reuters

It’s the same story again. As with many other man-made disasters on the mainland, journalists and victims’ relatives had a battle to get close to the scene of Shenzhen’s collapsed dump to look for real answers as to what happened there.

From the start, reporters were told to base their accounts on official press releases and victims’ relatives were told to stay in designated areas until further notice.

At about 5am on Monday, one couple in their 60s tried to defy those orders and make their way to the disaster scene but were stopped on the road in. They begged the police officers to let them in to look for their son but their pleas were rejected with a complete lack of compassion.

Those officers also refused to let me and a photographer pass but two migrants workers offered to show us a way through the security cordon in the dark.

We followed them along rugged trails and past fields of vegetables next to the industrial park where the disaster left lives and a community in ruin.

Police officers wearing masks are seen near a barricade next to the site of the landslide at an industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Photo: Reuters

As we got closer, we saw even more police officers blocking residents from getting any closer the site. We evaded the officers and made it inside the industrial park, getting to the roof of one of the buildings for a clear view of the devastation.

Over the next few hours, we came across several people looking for their missing relatives. Some said they had survived the landslide and could guide rescuers to where many people were buried.

“But the officials ignored us. No one cares about us or has told us how things are going with the rescue,” said survivor Zhou Suqing as she looked for her husband, Hu Wenhua, who was buried alive.

“[The officials] just want to separate us and prevent us from further demonstrating at the scene.”

Security only tightened in the next two days, with uniformed police ramping up their presence to block every lane near the scene, driving out Zhou and other angry relatives of the missing from the park. Some relatives said they were separated from others and could not pool information.

The authorities also appointed 76 teams of five Communist Party cadres each to “take care of relatives” of the 76 missing. Reporters have not been able to contact them since

There was also official silence on how such a dangerous waste could be allowed to pile up in plain sight.

As we left the landslide zone last night, we saw hundreds of dump trucks lining up to remove soil and construction waste from the scene. But there were no answers from the authorities about where the loads would be dumped and how it would be handled. Would the soil be dumped at a site big enough and safe enough to handle it?

If the authorities could handle the massive dumping legally and properly after the disaster, why they did not do it before?

 

[Faces]

Shenzhen landslide declared an industrial accident, not geological disaster, after government investigation

PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 December, 2015, 10:13pm
UPDATED : Friday, 25 December, 2015, 10:17pm

Rescue workers search a damaged building in the aftermath of the Shenzhen landslide. Photo: Reuters

The Shenzhen landslide that killed seven people and left dozens missing was an “industrial safety accident” rather than a geological disaster, a Chinese cabinet investigation reportedly found.

The landslide, which struck the southern city on Sunday, is the latest in a series of fatal man-made accidents in the world’s most populous country – coming just months after a massive chemical blast in the industrial city of Tianjin killed almost 200 people.

More than 5,000 rescuers with over 700 excavators and bulldozers are still searching through rubble for signs of life. Photo: Xinhua

The disaster was caused by the improper storage of waste from construction sites, according to the official newspaper of the Ministry of Land and Resources.

Soil was illegally piled 100 metres high at an old quarry site and turned to m&d during rain on Sunday morning, according to the state-run Global Times.

About 75 people are still missing and seven bodies have been found so far, Xinhua said yesterday in the latest count, adding that only one rescued person, 19-year-old Tian Zeming, had made it out alive.

Survivor Tian Zeming greets his father Tian Zulong at the Central Hospital of Guangming New District in Shenzhen. Photo: Xinhua

The State Council, China’s cabinet, announced earlier this week that it would set up a team headed by the minister of land resources to investigate the disaster.

Documents on the website of Guangming New District, where the landslide occurred, showed that authorities were aware of problems with the soil storage and had urged action as early as July.

In an announcement dated July 10, officials said work at the site was not being carried out according to approved plans and ordered the Hongao Construction Waste Dump to “speed up” work to bring its operations into line.

The government issued a second warning in September, noting that the dump’s permit to receive waste had expired and authorities had made it clear that dumping should cease.

The city had “pointed out problems at the site and requested steps to correct them”, the statement said.

 

[Faces]

In pictures: From Shenzhen to Linfen, a deadly history of unnatural disasters in mainland China

Here we highlight six major catastrophes to haunt the mainland since 2008 – disasters in which hundreds of people paid the ultimate price

Staff reporter & AP

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, 1:38pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, 2:08pm

Friends console distraught Huang Fuxuan as the body of her mother is found at the site of a rain-triggered mudslide in Xiangfen county, Shanxi county, in 2008. Photo: Reuters

As rescuers continue to comb through the devastating aftermath of Sunday’s landslide in Shenzhen, the chorus of condemnation grows.

Residents are sure that illegal dumping of construction waste – apparently rife in recent years – contributed to the calamity.

Three decades of headlong economic growth have been catching up with China in terms of safety and damage to the environment.

More than 170 people died in the Tianjin explosion earlier this year. Photo: Imaginechina

The landslide is the fourth major disaster to strike China in a year following a deadly New Year’s Eve stampede in Shanghai, the capsizing of a cruise ship in the Yangtze River and a massive explosion at a chemicals warehouse in Tianjin on the coast near Beijing.

Human error has been suspected or confirmed in all three previous disasters, pointing to a lack of regulatory oversight and an often callous attitude toward safety in China despite the threat of harsh penalties.

Below we highlight six major catastrophes to haunt the mainland since 2008 – disasters in which hundreds of people paid the ultimate price.

 

[Faces]

Shenzhen landslide aftermath: official who rubber-stamped waste dump that triggered disaster takes his own life

Death is among a string of suicides which have followed unnatural disasters.

PUBLISHED : Monday, 28 December, 2015, 1:40pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 29 December, 2015, 1:57pm

Zhuang Pinghui
[email protected]

Diggers removing soil and debris at the scene of the disaster. Photo: Xinhua

A government official who approved a construction waste dump that triggered the massive landslide in Shenzhen last week has jumped from a building to his death, state media reported.

Police received a tip-off that a man had fallen from a building in a residential area of the Nanshan district of the city, the state-run news agency Xinhua said.

Investigators at the scene found the man had committed suicide, the report said, citing a statement from the district Public Security Bureau.

The man was identified as Xu Yuanan, the director of Shenzhen Guangming New District Urban Management Bureau.

Shenzhen police said on Monday afternoon that it had detained 12 people including several executives from the site operator, Yixianglong Investment Development Company, along with others suspected of being responsible for the landslide.

Seven people are confirmed to have died in the disaster and 75 are still missing after a massive landslide of dumped earth and construction waste buried buildings at an industrial estate on December 20.

Thirteen of the missing were children, ranging in age from two to 15, according to Phoenix Weekly, a Hong Kong-based news magazine.

Xu, 52, was promoted to head of the bureau in 2009, according to an earlier statement about his appointment.

An aerial view of the devastation caused by the landslide. Photo: Xinhua

The urban management bureau is responsible for inspecting waste dumps and public records show it issued an order for the site to close in July until it addressed safety problems.

Trucks, however, were still seen unloading waste at the dump in the days leading up the landslide, according to residents in the area.

It was unclear when Xu left his bureau director post. Public records showed he signed its budget in July, in his capacity as the bureau’s legal representative, but he was not included in the list of senior officials on the its website.

The dump was approved during Xu’s tenure and was mentioned in the bureau’s 2014 annual summary, which said it “provided a strong guarantee to handle the construction waste of major projects in the district”.

It was designed to accommodate 8 million square metres of construction waste during its operational lifespan of 10 years.

The dump site was built in October last year and approved in February, according to earlier reports.

An investigation team sent by the State Council, China’s cabinet, has ruled the landslide was a man-made disaster as it was created by lax safety at the tip rather than geological conditions.

Disaster suicides

Xu’s death has echoes of the suicide of an official in Tianjin who took his life after the huge blasts at a dangerous goods warehouse at the city’s port in August.

The official at the city’s transport commission was in charge of issuing approvals for schemes.

He jumped to his death two weeks after the explosions.

A day after his death, his boss – the director of the commission – was put in custody for his role in approving and issuing a business licence for the warehouse.

The owner of a gypsum mine in Shandong province that collapsed last week, trapping 17 miners, killed himself on Sunday after jumping into a well, Xinhua reported.

One person is known to have died in the mine accident.

 

[Faces]

Eleven arrested over Shenzhen landslide as authorities swoop and search continues for 62 missing people

More arrests flagged as prosecutors urge police to track down others

PUBLISHED : Friday, 01 January, 2016, 11:33pm
UPDATED : Friday, 01 January, 2016, 11:33pm
AP

Heavy construction equipment at the landslide site has steadily increased in number as the search and rescue effort ramps up. Photo: Xinhua

Authorities in southern China have formally arrested 11 people for their role in a landslide unleashed at construction waste dump last month that killed 12 people and left 62 others missing and presumed dead.

Prosecutors in the southern city of Shenzhen said in a statement late Thursday that a dispatcher and supervisor of the landfill, the chief and deputy manager of a company in charge of the landfill, and seven other people were arrested.

In the Dec. 20 disaster, a mountain of construction waste that had been piled up against a hill collapsed during heavy rains onto an industrial park in Shenzhen. The city near Hong Kong makes products ranging from cellphones to cars, and attracts workers from all parts of China.

December 23: A rescuer holds the hand of trapped survivor Tian Zeming at the site of the Shenzhen landslide. Photo: Xinhua

Prosecutors said the 11 people have been charged with negligently causing a serious accident. They said they have urged police to track down additional suspects.

An official in the district where the landfill was located jumped to his death from a building about a week after the disaster. It was not clear if the man, identified only by his surname, Xu, was under investigation over the landslide, but as head of the district Urban Management Bureau, his responsibilities typically would include regulating businesses and construction sites.

Officials have labeled the landslide a man-made disaster, raising the possibility of harsh penalties for those held responsible.

Despite the threat of prison time over major industrial accidents, a lack of regulatory oversight and cost-cutting by management often lead to deadly disasters in China.

 

[Faces]

Death toll rises to 58 in China landslide

AP
January 6, 2016, 7:42 pm

Chinese authorities say rescuers have dug out 58 bodies from a massive landslide at a construction waste dump in southern China on December 20.

The Shenzhen city government said on Wednesday that authorities have identified 52 of the 58 bodies and that another 25 people remain missing.

In the disaster, a mountain of construction waste that had been piled up against a hill collapsed during heavy rains onto an industrial park in Shenzhen. The city near Hong Kong makes products ranging from mobile phones to cars, and attracts workers from all parts of China.

Authorities have arrested 11 people on the charge of negligently causing a serious accident. City officials have bowed in public apology over the incident.

 

[Faces]

Five more arrested for Shenzhen landslide

Xinhua, January 8, 2016

Police in Shenzhen have arrested another five executives of the company responsible for the construction waste pile that collapsed and buried 77 people in the southern Chinese city last month.

The Bao'an district people's procuratorate confirmed the arrests Friday, following the earlier arrests of 11 others from the company, including a legal representative.

All 16 have been charged with negligence.

The waste pile collapsed on Dec. 20, destroying 33 buildings in the Hengtaiyu industrial zone. Fifty-eight bodies had been recovered by Wednesday, 18 days after the landslide.

A State Council investigation found the disaster was a result of work safety mismanagement rather than geological causes.

 

[Faces]

Shenzhen landslide: police hunt for six more suspects over disaster which killed dozens

25 people have already been held by the police over the disaster

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 13 January, 2016, 2:57pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 13 January, 2016, 3:28pm

Gloria Chan
[email protected]

Diggers at work at the scene of the disaster last month. Photo: AFP

The authorities in southern China are searching for six more people in connexion with the massive landslide in Shenzhen last month which killed dozens of people, state media reported.

Twenty-five people have already been held by the police over the disaster.

Sixteen of them have been formally arrested and nine criminally detained.

No details were given in the latest report from the state-run news agency Xinhua about who the six are or what their alleged role in the disaster was.

The number of people known to have been killed after the landslide at a huge construction-waste dump buried buildings at an industrial park last month is 69.

Eight people are still missing, presumed dead.

People already arrested include the supervisor of the landfill and the chief and deputy manager of the business, according to earlier media reports.

The Xinhua report also said family members of 65 victims have signed compensation agreements and left Shenzhen for their home towns.

 

[Faces]

Last two suspects in Shenzhen landslide arrested

Xinhua, January 19, 2016

One of two remaining suspects at large following the deadly Shenzhen landslide has been captured, and the other has surrendered to police, local police said Tuesday.

Long Renfu, one of three fugitive suspects, was arrested on Sunday night in the city of Chenzhou in central China's Hunan Province, about 600 km north of Shenzhen. Two other people who helped shield Long were also arrested.

The three were escorted back to Shenzhen on Monday.

Wang Minghui, the last suspect, gave himself up to Shenzhen police on Tuesday afternoon after returning from Indonesia.

On Saturday, Lin Xixiao turned himself in to the police in Fuqing City, Fujian Province, about 800 km northeast of Shenzhen.

So far, 22 people have been arrested for allegedly failing to ensure safety management, which eventually led to the fatal incident.

The landslide occurred on Dec. 20, when a huge waste pile collapsed and left 69 people dead and eight people missing in the southern Chinese city, which borders Hong Kong.

The incident was the result of work safety mismanagement rather than geological causes, according to a State Council investigation.

 

[Faces]

73 bodies recovered from rubble of Shenzhen landslide

Xinhua, January 28, 2016

As of 11 a.m. on Thursday, a total of 73 bodies have been recovered from the Shenzhen landslide, with another four people remaining unaccounted for, the rescue headquarters said.

Rescuers work at the landslide site at an industrial park in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Dec. 25, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

Rescuers are still searching for the missing.

Of the 17 people hospitalized after the landslide, eleven have been discharged.

All 42 criminal suspects responsible for the landslide have been arrested so far.

No epidemics have been reported at the rescue area.

As of Thursday, 4,630 employees from the affected enterprises in the landslide have been properly resettled while local vegetable farmers whose fields were buried received compensation. All the families of the victims have reached compensation agreements.

The landslide occurred on Dec. 20, 2015 when a mountain of construction waste collapsed and hit an industrial park in the southern Chinese city.

The incident was the result of work safety mismanagement rather than geological causes, according to a State Council investigation.