The number of rescue workers was boosted by around 1,200 to just over 2,900, the Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
Another 78 excavators arrived to help dig through 380,000 square metres of silt up to 10 metres deep, Liu Qingsheng, deputy mayor of Shenzhen, told a press conference on Monday.
The landslide occurred when a large, unstable mound of dumped earth and construction rubbish collapsed Sunday, the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources said.
The dump was too high and slopes too steep, the ministry announced through its official microblog.
Soil slid from the 100-metre-high hill of dirt and rubbish produced by the last two years of construction work, a local Beijing paper reported, citing a resident.
"I saw five or six buildings being buried," another resident told the Beijing-based newspaper. "Some of them were workers' dormitories. I guess several hundred people are trapped."
A gas pipeline in the area exploded when the landslide hit, operator PetroChina was cited as saying by Xinhua news agency.
"It must have been a big accident because I heard the bang from so far away," a resident 4 kilometres away was quoted as saying.
At least 33 buildings were buried or destroyed including 14 factories, two office buildings, one canteen, three dormitories and 13 low-rise buildings, Liu Qingsheng, deputy mayor of Shenzhen, told a press conference on Monday morning.
Signs of life have been detected among the rubble at three locations, Xinhua reported earlier Monday.
Seven people were saved but the rescue effort was hampered by rain and mud, an official from Shenzhen's emergency management team said Sunday night.
More than 900 people were evacuated from Guangming New District in north-western Shenzhen, a major manufacturing hub across the border from Hong Kong.
Another witness said the mud hit like "huge waves," and he barely escaped the torrents that engulfed his home in red earth and sludge.
A woman told the Shenzhen Evening News her father was engulfed by earth as he sat in his truck. "It's been hours since he was buried, and we're quite worried," she said.
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