ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of lives in multiple landslides in China, expressing solidarity with Beijing.

At least four people were killed and 17 others were still missing in the debris after landslides hit a rural area in China’s southwestern Guizhou province, according to Chinese state media.

Two bodies were found in Changshi township on Thursday, and two others in the nearby Qingyang village, where a landslide had buried 19 people from eight households in wee hours of Thursday.

“Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives due to landslides in Guizhou, China. I extend my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” Sharif said in a post on X.

Most of Guowa township, where Qingyang is located, had lost power after the landslides, a local newspaper reported. A resident told state media that it had rained all night.

A drone video of the area showed a large swathe of brown earth that cut through the green slope of the hilly terrain.

“Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people and government of China during this difficult time and pray for the safe recovery of the missing,” Sharif added.

China and Pakistan are key strategic and economic allies.

Since 2013, Beijing has also invested tens of billions of dollars in energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a major segment of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

The corridor will connect China to the Arabian Sea and help Pakistan expand and modernize its economy through a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports built in the country with Chinese loans. A flagship of the Chinese corridor is a deep-sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan.

Beijing has also repeatedly rolled over sovereign loans to Pakistan in order to help Islamabad meet its external financing needs, whenever its foreign reserves have been critically low.