Beijing: At least 19 people, including 18 students, were killed when a landslide slammed into a primary school in southwest China’s Yunnan province, authorities said Friday.
When the landslide struck Thursday, the students were attending classes despite the ongoing National Day holiday to make up for gap in studies due to an earlier quake in Yiliang county.
Yiliang county was struck by multiple earthquakes Sep 7, leaving 81 people dead and 800 injured.
As rescuers worked frantically overnight, one body was retrieved Friday afternoon, bringing the toll to 19 in the landslide, reported Xinhua.
The dead students were from the Shangba Primary School, the county education bureau said.
Three buildings of the school were damaged in the earthquakes in September. They were demolished later, forcing 30 students to take lessons at the nearby Tiantou school.
As many as 800 residents were relocated after the landslide occurred at around 8.10 a.m. Thursday in the village of Zhenhe, burying 19 people.
Rescuers were continuing to drain water off the barrier lake that formed as the landslide blocked a nearby river.
The victims’ families were each granted 20,000 yuan ($3,160) as compensation.
