Death toll from floods, mud-rock flows rises in China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-22 19:17

BEIJING -- China reported more casualties on Sunday as rescuers retrieved bodies of people missing in floods and mud-rock flows triggered by heavy rains in recent days in many parts of the country.

Rescuers retrieved two more bodies Sunday at the Xiaojiangping Dam near the Sujiahekou Hydropower Station in Tengchong county, Yunnan Province, bringing the death toll from the mud-rock flow early Thursday to 29.

The two dead, a man and a woman, have been identified to be workers from Chongqing Municipality.

The mud-rock flow triggered by continuous rains swept through three tents where 74 construction workers lived. Thirty-five managed to escape and 10 were injured.

Also in Tengchong county, four villagers died and three were injured in a landslide that occurred Saturday morning in a mining area near Xinqi village when they were clearing the mud debris at the mine so as to carry out illegal mining, confirmed the Tengchong county government.

In a separate accident, armed police and divers have salvaged six bodies of the workers at the Shashapo hydropower station in Daguan county, Yunnan. They are still searching for the last missing one.

A flood hit the station under construction around 2:40 p.m. Thursday leaving seven people working at the site missing. The seven were from a hydropower construction company in Sichuan Province.

Floods also hit other cities such as Lincang and Pu'er in Yunnan.

The Yunnan Provincial Civil Affairs Department said 163 people have been killed and eight missing since late May from lightning strikes, floods and mud-rock flows in Yunnan. More than five million people were affected.

In central China's Hubei Province, the seventh rainstorm to hit the province between Tuesday and Saturday since June 18 has left two dead and two missing.

The seven rainstorms have affected 13 million people in the province. Working teams from the provincial government have rushed to the affected areas coordinate disaster-relief work.

In east China's Anhui Province, hundreds of thousands of people are working to prevent the long soaked dykes of swelling Huaihe river from being breached. The river is seeing the second biggest floodwater this summer since 1954.

More than one million people have been evacuated in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces from the projected path of floodwaters from the Huaihe River. There is no report of death from the Huaihe River flood.

By July 16, China's death toll from natural disasters was 715 with 129 people missing, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Thursday.

The figures showed 200 million people were affected by natural disasters, including floods, landslides, droughts, gales, snowstorms and earthquakes, while 4.45 million people were forced to leave their homes.



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