Massive landslide buries 4 sunbathers alive on Ukraine's Black Sea coast

One Russian citizen, a young girl, has been reportedly killed in the disaster

Rescuing works on the beach near the settlement of Kacha, on the outskirts of the city of Sevastopol, the Black Sea coast, continued throughout the night. Rescuers did not manage to uncover anybody, who was buried under the massive landslide, a spokesman for the EMERCOM of Ukraine said. According to the official, it became possible to find several things and clothes, which belonged to the vacationers.

Specialists say that several people could probably be buried under eight meters of mud. “There are hardly any chances for victims to survive the disaster. There is basically red clay in the landslide – it is the air-tight ground,” the head of the Ukrainian EMERCOM, David Zhvania said.

Rescuing works will continue until the last body is removed from under the heaps of mud and stones. The head of the Sevastopol city administration, Sergei Ivanov, told Interfax that rescuers would most likely complete their works soon. “According to preliminary estimates, we have found everyone, who could be buried under the ground of the landslide. We have uncovered a family of four members. They are all alive and safe. The people who were resting on the beach next to this family have been found too. They had left the beach before the disaster,” Ivanov said.

The landslide covered 26 people in total; 16 of them were saved, a spokesman for the rescuing headquarters, Miroslav Sagaidak said. There was one child among the victims of the natural disaster: the boy was playing at the foot of the mountain, shortly before a massive piece of ground separated from it and swept down. The child was lucky to survive the disaster, though.

A woman, whom the rescuers uncovered from under the ground, told reporters, that she had not been injured in the accident at all. “I did not stay under the ground for long. I only have several scratches. I remember someone screaming “Look out!” and that was it,” the woman said.

The landslide of clay and rocks covered the beach on the sea coast situated 50 kilometers far from Sevastopol yesterday. The 60 m2 landslide was some 30 meters wide. About 600 cubic meters of rain-soaked mud and rocks slid down on sunbathers. Many of them saved themselves by running into the sea.

A 16-year-old Russian girl was killed in the disaster. The girl came to Ukraine's Crimea with her mother from the Vladimir region of Russia. The girl's mother survived. Another Russian girl, born in 1984, was hospitalized in severe condition, with numerous fractures.

The police took a census of all holiday-makers in the disaster-hit area. The settlement of Kacha, where a military unit of the Russian Black Sea Navy is deployed, enjoys great popularity among the holiday-makers. A lot of Russian sports stars have their summer homes in the region.

Photo by RTR Vesti