Seven confirmed dead in China's Xinjiang landslide

All the seven people who were buried in Friday''s landslide in northwest China''s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region were confirmed dead, authorities said Monday. The seven dead, all male, were aged 22 to 39, local authorities in Xinjiang''s Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili said. They were among 11 people sleeping in three tents that served as makeshift dorms for workers in a mining area in Xinyuan County. When the landslide happened at 2 a.m. Friday, only four workers escaped, China''s News Agency (Xinhua) reported. Further landslides hampered search and rescue work, which began only on Saturday. Rescuers dug for nearly eight hours before all the seven bodies were retrieved. Investigators from Xinjiang''s regional land and resources administration have identified the accident as a geological disaster, saying the landslide site is located on a fault where the slope is unstable and prone to landslides and rockfalls.