According to local government sources yesterday, a cave-in
buried 12 women and 12 men in the northern province Shanxi
on Monday.
Around 650,000 cubic meters of loess collapsed at about 11:00 PM
in Qiaonan Village, Jixian County, and the fates of the 24 farmers
trapped are still unknown.
Sixteen local residents survived the tragedy, which engulfed 11
houses. They have been relocated to safe accommodation, and rescue
efforts continue with more than 20 bulldozers and trucks working at
the site.
The cave-in was 250 meters wide and 80 meters deep, and experts
said it was a natural geological disaster.
Loess is fine-grained earth distributed by wind that can form
large, deep unstratified deposits.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2005)