The death toll from the massive mudslides in Zhouqu County, in northwest China's Gansu Province, had risen to 1,435 as of Sunday, with 330 still missing, Xinhua quoted rescue headquarters as saying. Also Sunday, the county government issued a notice prohibiting locals from continuing to search for the missing people to prevent disease outbreaks, the official Chinese agency said. A government spokesman said two weeks after the devastating disaster some survivors had not yet stopped searching for the bodies of their loved ones. "The bodies have begun to rot after being buried for two weeks. Searching the debris risks an epidemic outbreak," the spokesman said.
