Thursday, 11 July 2013

World News: Search for China landslide missing in Sichuan

More than 20 people remain missing in the wake of a landslide caused by heavy rain in China's Sichuan province, state media report.

The landslide in Dujiangyan city covered an area of two sq km (0.8 sq miles) and killed a local villager and a tourist, state media said.

Heavy rain and floods have damaged hundreds of homes in southwest China.

The weather has forced the evacuation of more than 36,000 people in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

The overall death toll across Sichuan has reached nine, with more than 60 people missing, state media report.

A local villager in Dujiangyan, Gao Shiquan, said that he ran outside his home after he heard the landslide.

"I could see the hill opposite me had collapsed. There was a buzzing noise for around two or three minutes. My first feeling was that the hill had collapsed and the entire hillside was buried," he told state-run news agency Xinhua.

Rescuers had safely relocated over 350 tourists affected by the landslide, Xinhua reported.
More than 1,000 blankets had been distributed to Dujiangyan, while neighbouring Wenchuan county, which had also been hit by floods, received 500 disaster relief tents and 500 quilts, state media said.

Dujiangyan official Liu Junlin told reporters on Wednesday that the rainfall in the city was the highest since national weather records were established in 1954.

On Wednesday, more than 2,000 people were trapped in a tunnel expressway connecting Dujiangyan with Wenchuan, as a result of the heavy rain.

They waited several hours before being rescued and relocated, Wenchuan's emergency management office said.

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