Nearly 100 homes damaged in ground cave-in

LIUZHOU, Guangxi - Rescuers said Sunday that nearly 100 homes were damaged and some even toppled down influenced by a ground cave-in three days ago in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

An initial investigation showed that the geological disaster, which wrecked havoc Thursday on altogether 40,000 square meters of ground in Maohe village of Liuzhou city, have damaged 94 houses, eight of which even collapsed, an official with the rescue headquarters said on Sunday.

No casualties have been reported but the disaster has forced over 1,700 residents to evacuate, said the spokesman.

Insurance companies and the local government are assessing the losses and will compensate those whose homes were damaged.

Local housing authorities also said they would fill in the sunken area as soon as possible.

Experts said that ground cave-in is comparatively common in karst areas in Guangxi but it is yet to know exactly how the sinking happened.