Society

Three dead, 4 missing in Sichuan quake area

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-20 03:51
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CHENGDU - Three people were killed and four others are missing in rain-triggered flash floods and landslides in a southwest China county that was devastated by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, local authorities said Thursday.

Torrential rains on Wednesday and Thursday, with precipitation of as much as 277 mm, pounded Qingchuan County, which is only just recovering from the 2008 quake that left 87,000 people dead or missing.

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Recent rains have triggered flash floods and landslides which have destroyed hundreds of homes and forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate, said a spokesman with the office.

The county is isolated, as three major roads leading to neighboring counties have been cut off by landslides, said Chen Zhengyong, head of the county government.

Fifty excavators are rushing to clean away the landslide and restore traffic, he said.

In some worst-hit villages, telecommunications and power have also been cut off, he added.

However, the situation may worsen as rains are expected to continue to pelt the region until Saturday, according to Thursday's provincial weather bureau forecast.

China has been suffering from a string of rain-triggered disasters recently as the country battles its worst floods in at least a decade.

On Thursday, two train carriages plunged into a river after floods destroyed a bridge on a railway line in Sichuan Province.

No casualties were reported as all passengers had been ordered off the train before it derailed.

In the southwestern province of Yunnan, six people were killed and 86 others remain missing after mudslides hit a remote mountain town Wednesday.

Earlier this week, rain-triggered mudslides killed 15 people and injured nine others in the province's Wenchuan County - the epicenter of the 2008 quake.

In the northwestern province of Gansu, at least 1,364 people were killed and another 401 are missing after mudslides hit Zhouqu county eleven days ago.

More than 60 Tibetan monks Thursday began a seven-day ritual to pray for both the dead and the living in the disaster-stricken county.