families of Chinese landslide victims seek answers liveshot rivers_00025812.jpg
Families of Chinese landslide victims seek answers
03:40 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

58 bodies have been pulled from rubble 18 days on

A total of 77 people were reported missing

CNN  — 

Workers have recovered a total of 58 bodies from a landslide caused by the collapse of a massive waste dump in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

The Internet Information Office of the Shenzhen municipal government said on its Weibo social media account Wednesday that 52 of the bodies were on the missing list and police are trying to identify the other six.

A total of 77 were reported missing. More than 10,000 people were involved in the rescue efforts.

Authorities said it was hard to calculate the exact number of missing because many of the people who lived and worked in the industrial district were thought to be migrant workers from China’s poorer, inland provinces, who are often unregistered, or their relatives live too away to be contacted quickly.

The landslip took place on December 20 and engulfed 33 buildings, with the rubble piled four stories high in places.

Police have arrested 11 people for their role in the landslide, the prosecutor’s office in Bao’an District said last week.

Among the arrested are the legal counsel of the company managing the waste dump, the deputy general manager, as well as the site’s supervisor and coordinator, prosecutors say.

A former official in charge of regulating the waste dump killed himself on December 28.

CNN’s Kevin Wang contributed to this report.