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Shenzhen landslide: As hopes fade, rescuers pause to honour victims

Families of victims say they are being kept in the dark about operation

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Rescuers laid wreaths for victims of last week’s landslide site an industrial park in Shenzhen. So far only one survivor has been pulled from the debris, while 75 are missing. Photo: Xinhua

Rescue workers and government officials held a ceremony yesterday to commemorate those killed in the huge landslide in Shenzhen last week, but relatives of the dozens missing and presumed dead did not attend saying they still hope their relatives are alive and it was still too early to mourn.

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The families of the missing have expressed increasing frustration over the slow pace of the rescue work at the industrial estate that was hit by the massive landslip last Sunday.

Seventy-five people are still unaccounted for after 380,000 square metres of industrial waste buried surrounding buildings in the landslide.

Seven people are known to have died. Just one man has been found alive, a migrant worker from Chongqing (重 慶). Chrysanthemums were laid and horns sounded during the official ceremony at the disaster scene. Chinese traditionally mourn deaths on the seventh day of passing.

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Officials taking part included Guangdong Communist Party secretary Hu Chunhua (胡春華), provincial governor Zhu Xiaodan (朱小丹) and Shenzhen party secretary Ma Xingrui.

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