127 killed and 2,000 missing as mudslides sweep across China

AT LEAST 127 people were killed and nearly 2,000 missing yesterday after mudslides swept away homes and destroyed roads in northwestern China as the nation battled its worst flooding in a decade.

At least one village was buried entirely and deep rivers of sludge and rocks were hampering rescue efforts in the devastated region of Gansu province, where about 45,000 people have been evacuated, the government and state media said.

Authorities have sent more than 4,500 soldiers, police, firefighters and medics to help in search and rescue efforts after the landslides in the remote ethnically Tibetan region, triggered by a deluge of rain late on Saturday.

Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in the mountainous region yesterday after he and President Hu Jintao urged rescuers – some using their bare hands – to spare no effort to save lives in the latest natural disaster to strike the country.

At least 50,000 people have been affected by floods which submerged half of Zhouqu county at one point, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing Mao Shengwu, head of the affected Gannan prefecture.

The landslides – which struck around midnight when many people would have been asleep – swept mud, houses, cars and other debris into a river running through the county, blocking the waterway and triggering flooding in the valley.

One village was buried by the mudslides that levelled an area five kilometres long and 500 metres wide, Xinhua said, as floodwaters reached as high as three storeys at one point.

State television broadcast images of local residents walking through streets clogged with mud and debris and pictures of buildings swept off their foundations or destroyed by the mudslides and flooding.

Other images showed buildings and vehicles partly submerged by muddy water and soldiers and local residents frantically shovelling mud as they searched for the missing.

Reports said more than 680 people had been rescued so far, many of them stranded on top of buildings.

“It’s very hard to locate the people washed away by floods. It’s hard to say what their chances of survival are,” said He Youxin, whose rescue team had so far saved 23 people and recovered 15 bodies.

Reports said 76 people had also been injured.

Torrential downpours had stopped, reports said, but the local weather bureau has forecast more rain in the coming days.

“The water of the Bailong River flowed into the county seat and many people were trapped,” said Diemujiangteng, the head of Zhouqu county.

“Now the sludge has become the biggest problem to rescue operations. It’s too thick to walk or drive through.”

More than 300 houses were buried in the landslides which destroyed roads and bridges and tore apart buildings, while telecommunications, water, electricity and transport links have been cut in parts of the region.

According to government figures issued before the latest disaster, the number of people killed or missing in floods across China this year has risen to more than 2,100.

China’s civil affairs ministry said Friday more than 12 million had been evacuated from their homes.