The dam, in Liaoning province’s Shiqiaozi village, was supposed to be used to contain waste from iron ore production, but over the years there had been a buildup of water.
An 80-metre wide river of debris spilled across fields and into two low-lying villages, destroying cropland and 33 houses.
The disaster came a week after 31 people were crushed in a landslide in central China, at the entrance to a railway tunnel being built near the site of the Three Gorges Dam.
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