Search for landslide victims
RESCUERS in central China were searching yesterday for nine people still missing in a landslide amid widespread flooding in much of the country.
The disaster struck Huangmei county in Hubei province at around 4am, according to rescue services. Forty other people were rescued and moved to shelters, they said.
The floods have left more than 120 people dead or missing across several provinces. State broadcaster CCTV showed scenes of towns inundated with head-high waters in parts of Anhui province.
Waters rose above warning levels in 19 rivers, five lakes and more than 400 reservoirs in Anhui, west of Shanghai, and other major urban centres along the east coast. Nearly 30 000 people were evacuated in Hubei’s Huanggang city after water started seeping from a reservoir, prompting emergency workers to shore up the structure and dig a channel to release the overflow.
Anhui and Hubei appear to have been hit hardest by the seasonal rains. Damage has been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, adding to pressure on a national economy still reeling from the effects of virus-related shutdowns.