More than 50,000 people were killed by landslides around the world between 2004 and 2016, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Sheffield.


The team, which compiled data on more than 4,800 fatal landslides during the 13-year period, also revealed for the first time that landslides resulting from human activity have increased over time.


The research is published today in the European Geosciences Union journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.


The team found that more than 700 fatal landslides that occurred between 2004 and 2016 had a human fingerprint. Construction works, legal and illegal mining, as well as the unregulated cutting of hills (carving out land on a slope) caused most of the human-induced landslides. -- PTI