Avalanche blocks highway, traps 30 in Tibet

By Xin Dingding (Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-28 09:00

More than 30 tourists who were stranded when an avalanche blocked a highway in Tibet were rescued on Friday, police said.

Police officers work to clear snow off the highway linking Sichuan and Tibet on Thursday after an avalanche blocked the road. [China Daily] more photos

Two sections of the Tibet-Sichuan highway, which at one point were covered by 4 m of snow, have been cleared, Liu Hongchun, an armed police officer in charge of clearance work, told China Daily.

No casualties have been reported, the Xinhua News Agency said.

A group of about 30 Chinese tourists, mostly from Beijing, Sichuan and Tibet, was found stranded at a tourist spot in the Niutagou Valley, between Baxoi and Bomi counties, Liu said.

"They took refuge in a few rooms at the tourist spot, and our officers took them fuel, food and water," he said.

The group traveled on to Lhasa once the road was cleared, he said.

The armed police also pulled two vehicles from the snow that belonged to local Tibetans, he said.

Although the roads had been cleared, snow continued to fall and the threat of avalanches remained, Liu said.

He and his colleagues were almost caught up in one, he said.

"The avalanche happened suddenly, and huge gales began to blow in the valley. The men had to hold hands to keep themselves upright," he said.

More than 200 armed police officers had been fighting the heavy snows in the region since Thursday, and efforts were ongoing to clear roads, he said.

"The snow is extremely deep in some places. It was over the top of my knee-high boots," he said.

The Sichuan-Tibet highway is yet to fully reopen to traffic, he said.

Several other people were still stranded in Bomi and Baxoi, Xinhua reported.