The confirmed death toll from a disastrous landslide in Nayong County, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, reached 32 at 11:00 AM on Monday. Twelve others are still missing.

After a preliminary investigation, Ministry of Land and Resources officials said the accident was a natural geological disaster.

"The mountain where the landslide occurred has been apart for a long time," Jiang Jianjun, director of the Geological Environment Department with the ministry, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying. "A landslide can easily occur on the mountain due to its fragile geological structure."

But some local residents do not agree, according to a report appearing in the Chengdu Business Daily, from southwest China's Sichuan Province. The newspaper said many believe the accident was caused by coal mining in the area.

"Landslides will occur sooner or later because numerous coal mines have made the mountain hollow," Wang Ping, a local shopkeeper was quoted as saying. "Before the accident, several such landslides had occurred with no casualties."

An anonymous official with the Guizhou Provincial Coal Management Bureau was quoted as saying that mining should not affect the likelihood of landslides.

Yang Guoshun, a commissioner with the State Administration of Work Safety, told China Daily that local coal mines have little impact on landslides.

"There is a long distance between the coal mines and where the landslide occurred," he said on Sunday.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have indicated their concern about the accident and urged local authorities to do all they can to rescue remaining victims.

The tragedy occurred in Zuojiaying Village at about 3:40 AM Friday when a mass of earth 500 meters long, 200 meters wide and three meters high crashed down on the homes, according to an earlier statement by Guo Yan, head of the Nayong County Civil Affairs Bureau.

Three of the thirteen people who were rescued were critically injured. The others were hospitalized in satisfactory condition or released with only slight injuries.

Guo stated that work had been halted at the 20 mines in the vicinity of the village until central government authorities made a final determination as to the cause of the slide.

A total of 45 families that were affected by the landslide have already moved to tents in safe places. Heating, water, food and medicine have been provided to victims, sources said.

Nayong is a poverty-stricken county in Guizhou.

(China Daily, China.org.cn December 6, 2004)