8 dead as search continues for 34 missing in Chongqing landslide

Rescue crews race to find survivors from a landslide in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing that has killed at least eight people while 34 remain missing.

Rescue operations following a landslide in Pengshui County on the outskirts of Chongqing municipality are made difficult as the area records more than 19 centimetres of rain overnight.

Rescue teams entere the site as the rain eases to conduct on-the-ground inspections of the collapsed buildings and riverbank areas.

The event has already claimed eight lives, with 34 still missing as crews continue to dig through rocks, soil and rubble in the hopes of finding survivors.

Ten people were rescued and sent to the hospital, while more than 1,100 have been relocated.

As rescue operations are being carried out on one side of the massive rocks, teams will later need to look beneath them.

These boulders could become unstable, though, potentially putting rescue workers in danger.

Once the search of the surrounding areas is complete, officers will drill into the boulders and fill the holes with explosives to break them apart.

The landslide Friday morning contained about 18,000 cubic metres of rocks and debris, and the largest single rock was around 3,000 cubic metres, officials say.

The massive amounts of rocks and soil were

washed down a slope, burying more than 10 residential buildings, state broadcaster CCTV says.

China's National Development and Reform Commission is allocating 30 million yuan to support the restoration

of infrastructure and public service facilities following the disaster.