Rescuers scramble in the rain to find survivors after a landslide in China killed at least eight people

Rescuers use heavy machinery to clear debris to search for trapped victims at the site of a landslide in Pengshui County, southwest China’s Chongqing, July 18, 2026. | Photo credit: AP

Rescue crews scrambled to find survivors of a landslide in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing that killed at least eight people and left 34 missing on Saturday (July 18, 2026).

A landslide occurred on Friday morning (July 17, 2026) in Pengshui County, on the outer edge of Chongqing Municipality, when a huge amount of rock and soil washed down a hillside, burying more than 10 residential buildings, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Ten people were rescued but sent to hospital, while more than 1,100 people were displaced.

Associated Press photos and videos showed that one of the fallen rocks appeared to be larger than a multi-story building with ruins scattered across the steep terrain. One of the damaged buildings had its top crushed and a half-buried car could be seen near another building.

The landslide contained about 18,000 cubic meters of rocks and debris, and the largest single rock was around 3,000 cubic meters, Wang Chuanjun, head of the Planning and Natural Resources Department of Pengshui County, told a press conference on Friday (July 17, 2026).

CCTV reported that persistent rain hit Pengshui from Friday night (July 17, 2026) to Saturday morning (July 18, 2026), with 19.2 cm (almost 8 inches) of rainfall recorded at the weather station. Unstable weather made the rescue operation difficult, it said. As the rain eased slightly, rescue teams entered the scene to conduct on-site inspections of the collapsed buildings and riverside areas.

While rescue operations were underway on one side of the massive rocks, teams later had to look under the rocks, where they may face the risk of injury from instability and sliding boulders, CCTV said. Once the survey around the rocks is complete, officers will drill through the boulders and fill the holes with explosives to break them, it said.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission on Saturday (July 18, 2026) allocated a relief fund of 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) to support the recovery of infrastructure and utility facilities after the disaster.

The rain-triggered landslide occurred near a stretch of the Wujiang River that cuts through karst mountains dotted with small towns and terraced fields.

Pengshui County is located in the southeastern part of Chongqing, bordering Hubei and Guizhou provinces.

Published – 18 Jul 2026 12:38 IST