The death toll rose to 11 on Sunday following the huge landslide that engulfed workers' tents at a copper and gold mine in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, state media said. Hundreds of rescuers used their hands, metal poles, excavators and sniffer dogs to search debris for a third day on Sunday, but officials held little hope of finding anyone alive under the estimated 2 million cubic metres of mud and rubble that buried the camp. The civilian and paramilitary rescuers recovered 10 more bodies, raising the confirmed death toll to 11, after sifting through about 300,000 cubic metres of debris by Sunday, state broadcaster China Central Television said. They found tents, clothing and kitchen utensils in one location where three bodies were recovered, raising expectations of finding more victims in the same area, the official Xinhua news agency said. But officials held "slim hope" of finding anyone alive at the Jiama Copper Polymetallic Mine in Maizhokunggar county, some 70 kilometres from the regional capital Lhasa, Wu Yingjie, deputy regional secretary of the ruling Communist Party, was quoted as saying. Some 3,500 searchers were deployed at the site, using 300 mechanical excavators, the agency said.
