About two-thirds of the fallen earth and rocks had been taken away from the site of the landslide, which buried a nine-story residential building.

A special working team consisting of officials from four departments under the State Council, including the ministries of land and resources, civil affairs and construction, have found that the landslide is a geological diaster. They reached this conclusion after a three-day investigation at the site.

Only seven people out of 25 families in the building were known to have escaped the disaster, the sources said.

Hundreds of armed police, the People's Liberation Army soldiers and local residents joined the rescue efforts.

Tourists Found Among Victims

Two tourists were confirmed to be among those who were killed, and six other tourists, including two kindergarten girls, were said to stay in the nine-story building buried in the landslide.

The dead bodies of the two, who were husband and wife from Chongqing, were recognized by their relatives.

Relatives say the eight people traveled to Wulong in company and checked in at the rest house named "Mengzhiyuan" on the third floor of the nine-story building just before the accident.

It is estimated that about 76 people were in the building when the accident took place, said local sources.

Wulong is a tourist destination some 200 km away from Chongqing. In the past three days alone, more than 20,000 tourists came to the county to spend their May Day holiday, the sources said.

(Xinhua 05/04/2001)