Beijing: More than 60 people went missing
after torrents of mud slammed into homes in southwest China
on Wednesday, blocking roads in the nation's latest disaster as it
battles its worst flooding in a decade.
Power lines and telecoms have been cut to Puladi township
in Yunnan province, where the mudslides struck in the early
hours today as people were sleeping, a provincial government
official said.
Rescuers have been sent to the affected area, in a remote
and mountainous part of Yunnan on the border with Myanmar, to
search for the 67 missing people, the official, who asked not
to be named, told AFP.
The mudslides destroyed a bridge and more than 200 metres
of road, the nation's civil affairs ministry said on its
website.
A large amount of debris was washed into the Nu River,
where the water level rose by up to six metres, it added.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that the disaster had
also left 25 people injured -- nine of whom were seriously
hurt. Most of the missing were villagers and employees at a
mine.
"I suddenly heard rumbling late last night and then
rushed to a safe place with fellow villagers -- I hadn't
expected mudslides could come so quickly," Yu Zhizhong, a
survivor, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
At least 10 trucks carrying iron ore and 21 houses were
buried by the mudslides -- the second time they have hit
Puladi in less than two months. A landslide in June killed 11
people at a construction site, the report said.
The latest mudslides come 10 days after at least 1,287
people were killed in devastating mudslides in the
northwestern province of Gansu, which virtually split the
remote town of Zhouqu in two.
Nearly 460 people are still missing in Zhouqu, where
rescuers are battling to get much-needed aid supplies to
residents and prevent an outbreak of water-borne disease.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 21:16