Storms strand 500,000

BLIZZARDS stranded more than half a million train passengers in a Chinese town yesterday.

The mostly migrant workers were stuck in the southern city of Guangzhou because the heavy snowfall in provinces to the north had cut off parts of the busy railway line to Beijing.

Officials were frantically trying to prevent riots breaking out and find temporary shelter for the crowd, which was swelling each day as more workers tried to return to their home towns for the Chinese New Year.

Forecasters warned that more snow would hit the central provinces of Hunan, Hubei and Henan, as well as Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu to the east.