Landslide kills eight in Xinjiang

A landslide that occurred Friday night killed eight people in Gongliu County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, local government sources said on April 11.

The landslide took place at 10:30 p.m. Friday at a mountainous area more than 20 kilometers west of Mohuer Township of Gongliu County, the Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture. The landslide buried the houses of a herdsman family, killing eight people on the spot.

Four horses, four head of cattle and 16 sheep of the family were also buried by the landslide, investigations have shown.

The landslide, 100 meters long, 80 meters wide and six meters deep, moved more than 1,000 meters downward along the mountain slope, uprooting a large group of trees, said Li Hesheng, head of the environment monitoring institute under the regional land and resources bureau.

Local civil affairs department has sent officials to investigate the situation in the affected area and monitor closely other places where occurrences of landslides are quite possible.

Source: Xinhua