1 A slow-moving landslide in a western Ukrainian city has destroyed at least three buildings and forced officials to start evacuating parts of the city, an administrator said Thursday.
2 The 700-meter- (-yard-) long landslide in Chernivtsi began moving down a sharp slope into an old part of the city on Tuesday. Since then, it has continued moving 15 to 25 centimeters (6 to 10 inches) a day.
3 Three buildings have already collapsed, and a fourth is near destruction, said Yaroslav Dudko, deputy chairman of the city council. The street's one-story buildings are riven with 20-centimeter (8-inch) cracks.
4 Three hundred people have been evacuated from 16 buildings, including 100 hospital patients. Volunteers, city workers and local soldiers are working round-the-clock to cut down trees and remove other materials weighing down the slope from which the landslide began.
5 The area had been extremely dry last summer, and then was covered by a thick blanket of snow that began melting during a sudden thaw four days ago.
6 'If there's more rain right now, then the results will be even more dangerous,' said Olga Singayivskaya, a spokeswoman for the city council.
7 The last major landslide in Chernivtsi occurred in 1961 and destroyed 10 buildings.

A slow - moving landslide in a western Ukrainian city has destroyed at least three buildings and forced officials to start evacuating parts of the city , an administrator said Thursday .
A slow - moving landslide
What caused the landslide?