Rescuers blasted through rock and debris Sunday to try and reach 27 miners trapped after a massive landslide buried an iron ore plant and several homes in a valley in southwestern China, leaving 26 people dead and dozens missing.

The landslide buried the Jiwei Mountain iron ore mine and covered its two entrances with rocks Friday while 27 miners were still inside, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Authorities believe they could still be alive.

No official death toll has been released, but state broadcaster CCTV reported Saturday that 26 people were killed — 19 miners and seven staff from a mobile phone company. When asked to confirm the report, Chongqing government spokesman Ai Yang said no bodies had been found so far.

The landslide occurred in Wulong county, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) from resource-rich Chongqing city, where industrial accidents are common.

Rescuers attempted to reach the shaft where the miners are believed to be trapped by setting off explosives Saturday near one of the plant’s entrances, Xinhua said. More explosives were detonated Sunday, CCTV said. Plans were under way to drill a 130 foot (40 meter) deep hole to give the miners air and send water and food down.

A Wulong county Communist Party official, who would only give her surname Zhu, said Sunday that 72 people were missing, including the trapped miners. It was unclear whether that number included the deaths reported by CCTV. She did not provide other details.

China’s vice-premier in charge of industrial policies, Zhang Dejiang, inspected the rescue work Saturday and urged precautions against secondary disasters, Xinhua said, adding to earlier calls by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to spare no effort to save those buried.

An official with the Chongqing work safety supervision bureau, who would give only his surname Dong because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the landslide did not appear to be related to mining activities.

Experts were investigating the cause, Xinhua said.

A landslide last year killed at least 277 people when a shoddy holding reservoir burst and inundated a valley in Shanxi province in northern China with mud and iron-mining waste.

By Gillian Wong