1.
GTV PAN scene of disaster
0.08

2.
AV TRAVELLING SHOT, ditto
0.34

3.
GV House plunging into chasm
0.53

4.
AV TRAVELLING SHOTS, disaster damage (2 shots)
1.15



Initials SGM/0020 SGM/0058



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A disastrous killer landslide swallowed up complete homes and families in the tiny Quebec village of St. Jean Vianney on Tuesday night (May 4). A giant 200-foot deep (60 metres) ravine opened up in the landslide, apparently caused by the Spring thaw, heavy rains and an underground river which has been forming below the village for the past two years. Several bodies have been recovered by rescue teams, but 26 people were still missing today (Thursday May 6). Latest figures are less than those estimated last night (Wednesday May 5). Rescue work has been made more hazardous as the chasm is still enlarging -- occasionally swallowing another house as people watch helplessly.

This film, showing the disaster area and the damage done, has a dramatic sequence of a complete house sliding into the ravine.

SYNOPSIS: The disastrous killer landslide which hit the little Quebec village of St.Jean Vianney in Canada on Tuesday night swallowed up a least 35 homes and over a hundred people. About seventy have been pulled to safety from the mud and slime in the 200-feet-deep (60 metre-deep) ravine. But at least five people are known dead, and over twenty are still missing.....also feared dead. The landslide was apparently caused by the Spring thaw, heavy rain and an underground river which has been forming below the village for the past two years.

As rescuers worked on Thursday, when this film was shot, the ravine was still opening up....and taking more houses into its horrifying depths.

About two hundred police, soldiers and civilians are engaged on rescue work, as the growing crater eats away homes and abandoned cars. Most of the terrified thirteen hundred villagers have been evacuated to nearby towns. But for many, the killer ravine is their final resting place.