Reports suggest 42 people were killed in a large rockslope failure. Imagery suggests that suspicion will fall on a cutting at the foot of the slope.
On Friday 17 July 2026, at 9:08 am local time, a large landslide occurred on the banks of the Wujiang River at Hanjia, located within of Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County in Chongqing, China. Media reports indicate that 42 people have been killed. Ten people were rescued.
Xinhua has released this image of the aftermath of the landslide:-
There is some dramatic footage of the landslide in action and the immediate aftermath:-
The location of this landslide appears to be [29.27760, 108.16604]:-
The images and video suggest that this was a rockslope failure – note the size of the blocks – with a strong element of toppling. The very planar form of the rear scarp suggests to me that release has come from an existing joint or fault.
The media reports indicate that rainfall was the final trigger – this makes sense from a timing perspective – but the focus might be on the underlying causes. My attention is immediately drawn to the building beside the road on the slope side of the site. It appears that the slope has been cut to create the space for the building. The building was under construction in 2014, but this image from 2017 shows the cut more clearly. I have annotated the top of the cut slope:-
This would be my starting point in terms of likely causation of this landslide. Interestingly, there are other locations along this road with large cut slopes, so an immediate priority will need to be an assessment of the stability of those sites.