No survivors, bodies found after Tibet landslide

（Xinhua）  12:53, March 30, 2013  

MAIZHOKUNGGAR, Tibet Autonomous Region, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers have not yet found survivors or bodies 28 hours after a massive landslide buried 83 miners at a gold mine in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, authorities said on Saturday.

A spokesman for the regional government said at a press conference at the site that rescue work was continuing.

The landslide happened at about 6 a.m. in Maizhokunggar County of Lhasa, the regional capital. The victims were workers from Tibet Huatailong Mining Development Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of the China National Gold Group Corporation.

As the site is at an altitude of more than 4,600 meters, most rescuers have been suffering from slight altitude sickness, according to one member of the group. Further minor landslides have hampered their efforts. And temperatures as low as minus three degrees Celsius have also affected the sniffer dogs' senses of smell.

He said the miners' survival chances were slim due to the scale of the landslide.

The affected area is 3 km wide, covered with about 2 million cubic meters of mud, rock and debris, a Xinhua reporter said from the disaster site.