<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">All 19 people caught in a landslide in southwestern China's Sichuan province on Sunday have been confirmed dead, state media reported, announcing the end of rescue efforts.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Part of a mountain collapsed at around 6 am (2200 GMT Saturday) near a state-owned forestry station in Jinkouhe, near the city of Leshan, state broadcaster CCTV said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The disaster sent mud and debris hurtling towards a construction site operated by a local mining company, where it "struck and buried parts of the production and living facilities at the mineshaft platform", CCTV reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nineteen people were confirmed dead as of 8 pm, the broadcaster said, adding that "search and rescue work has currently ended, and the cause of the... collapse is under investigation".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Footage broadcast by CCTV showed rescuers and excavators picking through a tract of mud that had flattened a wooded hillside and strewn it with twisted metal and smashed masonry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Jinkouhe government earlier said the landslide had killed 14 people and left five missing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An unspecified number of other mine workers "have been evacuated to a safe location", according to CCTV.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities sent more than 180 people and over a dozen pieces of rescue and recovery equipment to the site, the broadcaster added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Contacted by AFP earlier Sunday, an official in Jinkouhe's publicity department declined to give further details.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The settlement of around 40,000 people lies in a mountainous region about 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of the provincial capital Chengdu.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Frequent danger -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly during the rainy summer months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Remote and densely forested, much of Sichuan is particularly prone to disasters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Extreme weather triggered a series of landslides in the province in 2017, including one that completely buried the mountain village of Xinmo, entombing more than 60 homes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2019, massive rains again caused a slew of landslides, including one that buried a section of railway under repair and those working on it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The province is also seismically active and periodically experiences deadly earthquakes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A 7.9-magnitude quake in 2008 left more than 87,000 people dead or missing, including 5,335 school pupils.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although China has strengthened safety protocols in its extractive industries in recent years, accidents still frequently occur.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 50 people were declared "missing or dead" after a slope collapsed at a mine in the northern Inner Mongolia region in February.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And around 40 people were working underground when a gold mine in the northwestern Xinjiang region collapsed in December. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>