A trapped person is found dead at the site of landslide at an industrial park in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Dec. 23, 2015. There was one survivor pulled out alive while the other found dead at the landslide site by far, but still 75 missing in the landslide. (Xinhua/Liang Xu)
Rescuers pulled a man from debris Wednesday, three days after a landslide buried buildings in mud and construction waste in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, as China's cabinet announced an investigation into the country's latest industrial disaster.
Tian Zeming, 21, was found after almost 72 hours living on seeds and fruit that had been buried with him when a tide of earth and rubble from a huge waste dump crushed more than 30 buildings, rescuers were quoted as saying, AFP reported.
"He has a very strong will to survive," the emergency team's leader told the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.
Tian had used a rock to tap on debris to try to attract the attention of those looking for signs of life among the sea of mud, according to AFP.
Tian was one of 76 people reported missing following the incident, which occurred just before midday on Sunday after a huge pile of construction waste on a hill collapsed, destroying much in its path.
The other trapped person that Tian spoke of, however, was unresponsive, and was later pronounced dead, according to rescuers.
The number of deaths was expected to rise sharply after the so-called "golden period" - the 72-hour window when survival chances are highest - closed.
The landslide is the latest fatal accidents in China and comes just months after a massive chemical blast in Tianjin killed almost 200 people in August.
Wang Guoshe, head of Guangdong fire department, said locating the tops of buried buildings was the main task currently, so that signs of life could be found more accurately, Xinhua reported.
The mudslide was caused by the improper storage of waste from construction sites, according to the official Weibo of the Ministry of Land and Resources.
The State Council has set up a team to investigate the disaster, China Central Television said Wednesday. The team will be headed by the minister of land resources.
On Wednesday, Guangming New District's government also pledged to immediately carry out a district-wide inspection to eliminate potential safety hazards in the area, especially in similar waste storage areas and at risky sites threatened by landslides, China News Service reported.
