Hundreds of rescuers battling rain and low visibility today mounted a massive operation to locate nearly 100 people including 32 women who remained missing a day after a massive landslide struck an industrial estate in China's manufacturing hub of Shenzen.

In what is being termed as one of China's worst urban disasters, a huge man-made mound of earth and construction debris lost stability and collapsed yesterday, burying 33 buildings and triggering an explosion at a gas station in an industrial park in the southern city of Shenzhen.

Rescuers sifted through hundreds of tonnes of mud from a crumbling mountain and debris from the buildings in one of China's most developed cities, bordering Hong Kong.

Authorities mounted a massive rescue operation battling bad weather and low visibility, with 78 excavators and 1,200 rescuers added to the operation searching for the 91 people missing that includes 32 women, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

There are now 2,906 rescuers, including some 8,00 members of the armed forces, digging through silt and rubble at the Hengtaiyu industrial park. The excavators, which arrived at the site this morning, are the first to be involved in the operation, the report said.

It was, however, unlikely that further landslides take place, according to a team of 200 geology and gas experts involved in the rescue.