By Li Qian (Shanghai Daily)
14:19, November 20, 2012
A 67-year-old farmer in a village in central Hunan Province found the land near his house was sinking as he went to a backyard toilet on Friday night and saved his paralyzed wife just before the house collapsed.
Zhou Zhijun, the farmer in Quanhong Village, woke up at 2am on that fateful day and went to the toilet in the rain when he heard rumbles from the ground and found a pit about 2 meters in diameter had appeared outside his house and was expanding.
Zhou called up his son living nearby to help remove his paralyzed mother out. Soon his two-floor house was engulfed in sunken soil together with about 20 trees around the house, the local Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported today.
By 11am on Saturday, the pit had grown to about 300 square meters in size and 40 meters deep. Local residents believed the land subsidence was caused by a coal mine, not far from the village. Nine households in the village found their walls had cracks since the mine went into operation in 2006.
However, officials haven't concluded if the land subsidence was a natural disaster or a result of reckless mining activities. They have ordered the Jincheng Mine Company to suspend production, the paper said.
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