The landslide, which happened last Friday in Chongqing's Pengshui County, swept away residential buildings at the foot of a mountain and along a riverbank -- where rescuers said Thursday they were searching for 50 missing people.

Pengshui authorities said on Friday they had carried out "multiple rounds" of targeted blasts on fallen boulders to reduce the risk of secondary disasters and hazards to rescuers.

Hundreds of rescue workers have been deployed, with footage from state media showing a huge pile of rocks and earth collapsed into a residential and commercial street.

However, "following multiple rounds of life detection and search operations, no signs of life have been detected", Pengshui authorities said previously.

"Rescue efforts have been exceptionally challenging due to the massive volume of the landslide debris, the large size and sheer number of fallen boulders, the confined working space at the site, and the poor stability of the slopes," they said in a statement Thursday.

"Specialist teams are continuing to carry out the search for remains in a scientific and orderly manner, working round the clock."

Ten people were injured, they added.

Authorities had previously reported eight dead and 34 missing.

The disaster happened less than two weeks after another landslide in northwestern Gansu province left 21 people dead.