Death toll rises to 43 in SW China landslide

CHENGDU - The death toll from a landslide in Southwest China's Sichuan province has risen to 43 after 25 more bodies were retrieved, local authorities said.

As of 9:30 pm Saturday, rescuers had found 43 bodies from the landslide that happened on Wednesday morning in the village of Sanxi in Dujiangyan City, said Chen Yangjie, vice mayor of the city at a press conference.

Chen added that the identities of ten bodies have been confirmed.

Some 118 people across the city were missing or can not immediately be reached. Most of them are tourists, said Chen.

Local authorities are continuing to verify the exact number of those missing. Search and rescue work continues.

The landslide, which had buried 11 homes in the region that was struck by a devastating earthquake in 2008, is believed to have been triggered by severe rainstorms since Monday evening.

The affected area of the landslide is 2 kilometers long, with about 1.5 million cubic meters of mud, rock and debris, said Qiao Jianping, a researcher with the Institute of Mountain and Environment under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.