Zhouqu County , China ( CNN ) -- Chinese soldiers frantically dug through the mud with shovels , even with their bare hands , Tuesday to reach the second story of an apartment building in northwestern Zhouqu County . After 60 hours trapped under mud , Liu Ma Shendeng was alive . The soldiers pulled out the 52-year-old man , a rare moment of joy in a search for survivors in which hope was fast diminishing . The death toll doubled Tuesday to 702 people in massive mudslides triggered Sunday by rain in China 's Gansu province , the state-run Xinhua news agency reported . Another 1,042 people are still missing . The side of a mountain broke off in the darkness of night and tore through remote Zhouqu , burying many homes and ripping others apart . The path of the mudslide is now covered in three and four stories of rock and mud . Some buildings , including the police department and a primary school , were flattened by the wall of mud . Others toppled over or vanished completely , buried under sludge many feet deep . `` There was a noise like thunder and then it came down from the sky , '' said one woman , who did not want to be identified . `` There was no way to escape . '' Liu was bedridden and too weak to talk . But he represented a miracle in this place of utter devastation . Thousands of soldiers , policemen , firefighters and medics worked to search for survivors , the sounds of heaving and digging punctuated by the mournful cries of those who realized they have lost their loved ones . In some cases , entire families were buried alive . `` My sons are buried here , '' said Wang XuiQing , who stood with his wife , Yang Renhai , on a mound of earth that smothered their two-story home . The couple 's parents were inside along with their two sons . `` What is there to feel ? '' Wang said sobbing . Chen Jianhua , an official in Zhouqu , said 218 injured people had been treated at local hospitals , and 41 severely injured survivors had been transferred for treatment in the provincial capital of Lanzhou , according to Xinhua . China 's rainy season started with a vengeance in early May and has brought the worst flooding in a decade . And more rain is forecast in the next few days . Some of the rocks and debris from the mudslide landed in the middle of the Bailong River that snakes through the area . The river overflowed and inundated low-lying neighborhoods . The government has been using explosives to break up the river debris , in an attempt to gradually release the water safely . On land , the dead were wrapped in blankets and carried out on stretchers or planks of wood . Bodies lined the streets and a makeshift morgue where family members came to identify the dead . Even for those who survived the mud , the future looks empty and uncertain . `` Now I have to rely on the government , '' said a man who lost his home and several relatives . `` I do n't even have a pair of chopsticks to eat with . '' In Washington , China 's disaster elicited sympathy from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton . `` The United States is providing support for the ongoing relief efforts through assistance to the Red Cross Society of China , '' she said in a statement . `` To those affected by this tragedy and to all the people of China , we send our heartfelt condolences . ''
Soldiers rescued a man trapped for 60 hours under the mud . Thousands of rescue teams were searching for more than 1,000 people still missing . The mudslides were triggered by heavy rains that have tormented China all summer .