By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of people may be missing aftera mudslide triggered the collapse of a reservoir of iron orewaste in northern China, burying houses and sweeping away carsin a wall of thick sludge that killed at least 34 people.
Monday's landslide, caused by torrential rain, injured 35people at the Tashan iron ore mine in Shanxi province. Morethan 1,100 police, firefighters and villagers were hunting forsurvivors in the rubble, the official Xinhua news agency said.
State radio added in a report on its website that "severalhundred" were missing, though it did not provide any additionalinformation. Xinhua said the number of people missing had yetto be determined.
"We're busy trying to rescue people but it's very hard workwith all the mud and rocks," said Hu Yanzai, Communist Partysecretary of Chongshi, which is next to the villages that werewiped out.
"It's hard to estimate how many died. It's all mud and wedon't know how many escaped," Hu told Reuters by telephone."I'd estimate at least 100 (dead). It's a big area ... I don'tknow what to feel. I feel numb."
Xinhua said the flow of mud and rock destroyed athree-storey office building, a market and houses in thevalley.
"Witnesses said the flow roared down the valley and washedaway the market and the houses in a few minutes," it added.
Officials had rushed to the mine to direct rescue efforts.
"Our preliminary investigation found that this accident wascaused by illegal enterprises who discharged waste sand into amine tailings dam," deputy work safety chief Wang Dexue toldstate television.
"When the dam reached its capacity, it burst. Heavy rainaccelerated the process."
DETENTIONS, ANGER
The mine owner and eight others had been held, Xinhua said.
Several officials, including the local head of the worksafety administration and at least one village Party secretaryhave been sacked for failing to prevent the disaster, it added.
Pictures showed overturned vehicles covered in a stickysludge and parts of houses buried under several metres of darkmud. Rescuers clambered over the scene looking for survivors,some using excavators, others their hands.
On Chinese websites, people mourned the dead and somelashed out at local officials and mine owners, accusing them ofputting profits ahead of safety.
On an Internet chatroom hosted by popular portal Baidu(http://www.baidu.com) for residents of Linfen, near where theaccident happened, one user said word from the mudslide sitewas that "the situation was much worse than imagined".
Another said: "The black-hearted mine bosses make theirfortune and leave, and leave behind a deadly mess."
Newspapers reported in April that Shanxi had launched athree-year campaign to lower hazards from mines and tailings.
Mining areas now covered over 5,000 sq km (1,930 sq miles)of the province, officials said, and 676 villages werethreatened by subsidence, building damage and other geologicalhazards, including 201 under serious threat.
China's mining industry is the world's deadliest, killingnearly 3,800 people last year, as high demand for raw materialson the back of an economic boom pushes managers to cut safetycorners to boost output. Most victims are coal miners.
Strong iron ore prices and China's desire to limit itsdependence on imports have allowed miners to dig up even verylow-grade deposits, often with little regard for safety orenvironmental measures.
Because iron ore mines are generally open pits, they areless likely than coal mines to collapse and kill miners trappedinside, and so have not attracted as much regulatory attention.
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Lucy Hornby;Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)
