All-out Tibet rescue attempts find more bodies

Fifteen more bodies were retrieved on Sunday at the site of a mining area landslide in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

As of 9:15 p.m., a total of 17 bodies have been recovered since the landslide occurred two and a half days ago in Maizhokunggar County, about 68 km from regional capital Lhasa. Another 66 miners remain missing.

In two locations near the area where the new bodies were found, rescuers retrieved articles such as tents, clothes and kitchen knives, according to rescuers.

That has led them to believe more miners might be buried under debris at these two locations.

The disaster struck a workers' camp of the Jiama Copper Polymetallic Mine at about 6 a.m. on Friday, burying 83 workers and 11 pieces of machinery from Tibet Huatailong Mining Development Co. Ltd. The company is a subsidiary of China National Gold Group Corporation, the country's largest gold producer.

The identities of the miners have been confirmed and their relatives are also on their way to Lhasa. The majority of the victims were from geological institutes or mining companies from northwestern Gansu Province, southwestern Guizhou Province and Lhasa.

"Large swathes of rocks suddenly fell down from the mountaintop and the huge sound could be heard in the whole valley. It was a terrible scene," remembered a villager living nearby.

Zhao Linjiang is the camp's only survivor of the disaster.

He went down the mountain to buy tents on Wednesday, and was shocked to find, when he returned on Friday morning, that the camp had totally gone, burying his younger brother Zhao Malin and other miners.

"I was numbed by the scene, and trudged back and forth, crying all along," Zhao told Xinhua in Lhasa on Sunday.

"It's so cosy here, but my brother is so cold up there on the mountain," he said, wiping tears off his face.

Zhao said he must wait to see his brother, or even his body, before he returns home to be with his family.

"I won't return to this place any more," he added.