Landslide in China's Gansu province kills five, 12 still trapped

A landslide buried 33 people in Renzang Village in Nanhe Township, Tanchang County, in northwestern China’s Gansu province, leaving five dead and 12 still trapped as rescuers worked through unstable terrain. The slope gave way at about 6:56 a.m. local time, just before daybreak, turning a remote mountain village into the center of a fast-moving rescue operation.

By 2:50 p.m. local time, crews had pulled 21 people from the debris, but five of those rescued later died despite medical treatment. China’s Ministry of Emergency Management activated a Level-IV geological disaster emergency response and ordered nearby rescue forces to the scene, while officials also moved residents out of affected areas and warned against secondary disasters during the recovery effort.

The cause of the landslide remained unclear in official reporting, and early images from the scene showed excavators and rescue workers digging across a wooded hillside under clear skies. That detail matters because it points to a localized slope failure rather than a broad storm emergency, raising sharper questions about monitoring, warning systems and how much risk is accepted in villages built on steep mountain ground.

Longnan sits in a mountainous part of Gansu that is widely treated as landslide-prone, and the region’s history shows how quickly geology can become a mass-casualty event. Gansu’s worst recent disaster came in 2010, when the Zhouqu mudslide killed 1,765 people and caused about $759 million in property damage, a grim benchmark that explains why even a smaller village collapse now draws immediate national attention.

For local authorities, the urgent task is not only searching for the 12 still trapped, but also checking whether the ground will shift again as crews clear debris and reopen access roads. For families in Renzang Village, the disaster has already turned an ordinary morning into a fight for survival, and for officials in Gansu and Beijing it has reopened an old question: how to protect steep inland communities before the mountain gives way.