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Days of rain, snow blamed in fatal slide

Rescuers work at the mud-inundated debris after a landslide hit a village in Zhenxiong County, in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (Associated Press)
Associated Press

BEIJING – Chinese authorities have pulled out all 46 bodies that were buried and killed by a landslide that swept through a village in the steep, snow-dusted mountains of southern China on Friday, state media reported today.

The landslide smothered 14 homes in Zhaojiagou village in Yunnan province, the local county government of Zhenxiong said in public statements posted on its official website.

State-run China Central Television said today that all the bodies had been recovered.

A preliminary investigation blames saturation from more than 10 days of rain and snow for the disaster, the county government said on its website. Mudslides occur periodically in the region, which is prone to earthquakes and heavy rains.

In a nearby county, 81 people died after an earthquake in September. A month later, a landslide buried a primary school, leaving 18 students and one other person dead.