Up to 83 missing in Tibetan landslide

Officials say more than 3,000 rescuers are scouring the high-altitude, mountainous area

Rescuers in Tibet have found one body after 83 workers were buried in a massive landslide at a gold mining site.

The fate of the other victims is unknown. State media said the workers were buried early yesterday when about 2.6 million cubic yards of mud, rock and debris swept through the mine and covered an area of around 1.5 square miles.

The official Xinhua News Agency said more than 3,000 rescuers are scouring the high-altitude, mountainous area of Lhasa’s Maizhokunggar county, but search efforts were hampered when snow started to fall at around 1pm local time today.

Xinhua said the body was retrieved at 5.35pm. The miners worked for a subsidiary of the China National Gold Group Corp, a state-owned enterprise and the country’s largest gold producer.