Door Panel Saved Man Buried in Landslide for 60 Hours

A migrant worker was pulled out alive Wednesday after he was buried for more than 60 hours in a massive landslide that swept through part of a major manufacturing city in southern China. A spokesman for the Shenzhen Emergency Response Office said that the man, Tian Zeming, was rescued around dawn on Wednesday. "The survivor had a very feeble voice and pulse when he was found alive buried under debris, and now he's undergoing further checks," a doctor told a news conference in Shenzhen, according to a transcript posted by the district government that covers the area.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that Tian later underwent surgery for a broken hand and on his foot, which had been wedged against a door panel. It said he had been trying to get out of his room when the building collapsed, and the door panel created a space for him to survive. More than 70 people are still missing from the landslide that happened Sunday when a mountain of construction waste material and mud collapsed and flowed into an industrial park in Shenzhen. The Ministry of Land and Resources has said a steep man-made mountain of dirt, cement chunks, and other construction waste had been piled up against a hill over the past two years. State media reported that the local government identified problems with the mountain of soil months earlier and warned of a "catastrophe." (More Shenzhen stories.)