Door panel saves man buried 67 hours in China landslide

Published 10:03 am Wednesday, December 23, 2015

BEIJING — Squeezed into a narrow room under piles of debris for 67 hours, a young man was saved by a door that trapped his foot but gave him space to survive. Rescuers on Wednesday pulled him from the massive mudslide that hit part of a major manufacturing city in southern China.

In a feeble voice migrant worker Tian Zeming, 21, told rescuers his name and that another person was buried near him, according to authorities. But medical and rescue staff who went down into the rubble found the second person had not survived.

More than 70 people are still missing after the mountain of construction waste material and mud collapsed at midday Sunday and flowed into an industrial park in Shenzhen. The city near Hong Kong makes products ranging from cellphones to cars that are sold around the world and it attracts workers from all parts of China.

Email newsletter signup

Zhang Hu, a city vice mayor, told a news conference that four bodies had been found. He said that even though the critical 72-hour period to find survivors had passed, they were continuing rescue efforts with a team of 5,000.