By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The death toll has risen to 254 in a landslide triggered by the collapse of an illegal mining dump, which engulfed a village in northern China, a government official said Sunday.
By late Saturday, rescuers had identified 128 of the dead bodies recovered after Monday's accident in Shanxi province's Xiangfen county, a duty officer surnamed Zhang at the Shanxi provincial government told The Associated Press.
The tally could rise as more than 1,000 rescue workers comb through 74 acres (30 hectares) of sludge and mining waste covering the area, where hundreds more people could be buried.
The landslide Monday in Shanxi province's Xiangfen county was triggered when the retaining wall of a mining dump containing tons of liquid iron-ore waste collapsed, inundating the village of 1,300 residents and an outdoor market with hundreds of patrons in a matter of minutes.
Authorities have refused to give an estimate for the number of people missing. Earlier in the week, state media quoted government officials as saying hundreds could be dead but later denied making those statements.
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