Chinese mountain groaned before collapse

Press, 14 March 1983, Page 9

Chinese mountain groaned before collapse

NZPA-Reuter Hong Kong People living near Sale mountain in north-west China heard the mountain groan four days before part of it collapsed last week in a landslide that killed 277 people, reports the New China news agency. The agency said that 57 households were moved to safety three days before the tragedy in the province of Gansu on March 7, but many more had ignored warnings of the potential danger. “These people, busy with (northern) spring farming, might have decided to leave things to chance,” said the agency. Giving the official death toll for the first time, the agency said that the mountain had exploded with a thundering roar. It quoted a witness as saying that about 60 million cubic metres of stone and earth hurtled 300 metres down the mountain in one minute. Only 22 people caught in the landslide survived.

One of them said that he was collecting firewood when he felt the earth shake. He grabbed hold of a tree, but both he and it were thrown by the force of the avalanche. The debris had created a new fan shaped hill 60 metres high and 1600 metres across.

Geologists said that the earth slip was the most destructive to hit the region and that previous ones had been much slower. Crevices were first found in the mountain a year ago when seven families living halfway up were persuaded to move down.