Chinese officials said the Youfang primary school collapsed when the landslide struck the village of Zhenhe in Yiliang county, Yunnan province, at around 8am on Thursday morning. Eighteen students are thought to have been inside.
An adult was also trapped when two houses in the village were toppled, according to the statement published on the county website.
State news agency Xinhua said a family of three managed to escape. It added that other residents had been evacuated from the area. An official from the county told Associated Press on Thursday that rescuers had arrived at the village, a three-hour drive from the county seat.
The students at the Youfang Primary School would not normally have been in school this week as China is on a week-long national holiday. But Li Zhong, head of the county education bureau, told the China News Service they were making up for classes suspended after two earthquakes hit the area in early September.
But they were making up for lost time caused by disruptions stemming from two September 7 earthquakes that struck Yiliang county where Zhenhe is located, killing 81 people and leaving hundreds injured.
Web users immediately raised questions about the decision to have the children back in the schools.
The safety of school pupils is a sensitive issue after thousands of students died when an 8.0-magnitude tremor in 2008 rocked Sichuan province in southwestern China and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu.
Many schools collapsed in the 2008 quake, which killed more than 80,000 people in total.
This led to accusations that corner-cutting in construction projects and possibly corruption led to shoddy buildings, especially as many buildings nearby such schools held firm.
That disaster, which saw shockwaves of 5.7 and 5.6 magnitude, claimed 81 lives and injured 800 people in Yiliang and neighbouring areas. It was followed by torrential rain that triggered floods and mud and rockslides through the area — damaging roads and relocation sites for emergency services.
The central government said at the time it had allocated 1bn yuan for disaster relief in the county and premier Wen Jiabao visited to inspect rescue work.
Local government officials moved local residents to safer ground after the disaster and dispatched rescue teams to the area, it added.
Yiliang county was one of the areas worst-hit by the two 5.6-magnitude earthquakes last month. Last month's quakes left 820 people injured and 201,000 displaced.
In the wake of that disaster, domestic media said authorities should emphasise safety and sustainability in future developments.
Despite decades of rapidly improving living standards, China remains prone to natural disasters such as floods, quakes, and landslides, with heavy loss of life.
Thursday 4 October 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/04/china-landslide-buries-primary-school
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