Rescue crews search for survivors after landslide traps people in southwest China

Rescue crews were searching through mud and broken masonry after a landslide buried residential buildings in Pengshui County, Chongqing Municipality, with at least eight people pulled from the debris and more feared trapped. CCTV said the slide struck at about 9:08 a.m. Friday near a section of the Wujiang River, and search-and-rescue operations were still under way.

Xinhua said seven of the trapped people had been rescued by 11:42 a.m. local time. AP-distributed reporting later put the number rescued at at least eight. The landslide hit a stretch of southwest China that is especially vulnerable when heavy rain saturates steep ground, and NBC News’ AP story summary described the area as a karst mountain region dotted with small towns and terraces.

Beijing activated a Level 2 national emergency response after the rainfall triggered the slide, the South China Morning Post said. AP-distributed reporting said more than 1,000 people were evacuated from the area as emergency crews tried to account for everyone who may have been inside the damaged buildings. Photo captions released by Xinhua showed rescuers working on the site after rocks and mud toppled residential structures.

The scene in Pengshui reflects a recurring danger across southwest China, where steep slopes, fragile terrain and dense development can turn a single storm into a fast-moving disaster. In places like this, heavy rain does not just flood roads and fields; it can loosen soil, collapse slopes and cut off access at the exact moment responders need to move in. That makes evacuation timing, slope monitoring and drainage systems central to survival, especially near river valleys such as the Wujiang.

The immediate challenge in Pengshui was not only reaching people buried by the slide, but doing so before unstable ground shifted again. Landslides in mountainous parts of China often force firefighters, medical workers and heavy equipment operators to work in narrow windows between one collapse and the next. In this case, the race was on while rescue teams tried to clear debris, search damaged buildings and keep residents out of the danger zone.