Chinese rescuers work at the site of a landslide that hit an industrial park in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong province on Monday. At least one person was killed as the giant flow of red dirt flattened buildings. Picture: AFP/STR

Rescuers pulled the body from the mountain of debris after working through the night with drones and heavy machinery in the desperate search for more than 80 missing people.

The landslide demolished 33 buildings on Sunday in the Hengtaiyu industrial park in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, near the border with Hong Kong, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The official China News Service said the number of the missing people has gone down to from 85 on Monday to 81 today.

At least 16 people have been taken to hospital, Xinhua said.

Pictures on social media show the 38ha site lit up with floodlights as rescue workers use heavy diggers in the search for possible survivors trapped under up to 10m of mud.

Rescuers at the scene of the industrial landslide. Picture: AFP/STRSource:AFP

A report on the China defence ministry’s website said police and military forces were in a “race against time” and were using drones to map out the scene and life-detecting probes to find possible signs of survivors.

The flow of dirt, concrete chunks and other construction is believed to have come from an overfull waste dump near the near-flattened industrial park.

China’s Ministry of Land and Resources said rain in the region saturated the soil, making it heavy and unstable, and ultimately causing it to collapse with massive force.

The landslide caused incredible destruction to multistorey buildings. Picture: Liang Xu/Xinhua News Agency via APSource:AP

“The pile was too big, the pile was too steep, leading to instability and collapse,” the ministry said, adding that the original, natural hill remained intact.

But residents have blamed negligence by the Chinese government.

“If the government had taken proper measures in the first place, we would not have had this problem,” said Chen Chengli.

Chen’s neighbour, Yi Jimin, said the disaster wasn’t an act of nature.

“Heavy rains and a collapse of a mountain are natural disasters, but this wasn’t a natural disaster, this was man-made,” Yi said.

Witnesses have described seeing multistorey buildings topple seconds after the mudslide smashed into them.

An aerial shot of the massive landslide. Picture: AFP/STR/AFP/STRSource:AFP

“I saw red earth and mud running towards the company building,” one local worker was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

“Fortunately, our building was not hit, and all people in our company were safely evacuated.”

Aerial photos from the microblog of the Public Security Ministry’s Firefighting Bureau showed the area awash in a sea of red mud, with buildings either knocked on their side or collapsed entirely.

Posts on the microblog said the mud had filled many of the buildings, adding the chances of survival were “extremely small.”

The extent of the destruction. Picture: AFP/STRSource:AFP

Mobile phone footage of the disaster on state broadcaster CCTV showed a massive wall of debris slamming into the buildings and sending up huge plumes of dust.

The damaged buildings included 14 factories, two office buildings, one cafeteria, three dormitories and 13 sheds or workshops, Shenzhen Deputy Mayor Liu Qingsheng told a news conference.

The Shenzhen government said 600 people had been relocated.

Nearly 3000 people are involved in the rescue efforts, aided by 151 cranes and construction equipment, along with rescue dogs and life-detecting equipment.

Chinese rescue crews at the landslide site. Picture: AFP/STRSource:AFP

The frequency of industrial accidents has raised questions about safety standards in China after three decades of breakneck growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Just four months ago, more than 160 people were killed in big chemical blasts in the northern port city of Tianjin.

Meanwhile, a landslide last month engulfed 27 homes in rural Zhejiang province and killed 38 people.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has ordered a probe into the landslide in Shenzhen, a developed metropolis and business hub just across the border from Hong Kong.