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CHANGCHUN/HARBIN - About 4,260 of the 7,000 chemical barrels that were swept into a major river in northeast China's Jilin Province Wednesday had been recovered by noon Saturday, local authorities said.
Some 3,000 chemical-filled barrels and 4,000 empty barrels were swept into the Songhua River Wednesday morning after floods hit the warehouses of two chemical companies in Jilin City, Jilin Province. Each chemical-filled barrel contains 160 kilograms of chemicals.
The empty barrels have been easier for workers to retrieve, meaning the unretrieved barrels are more likely to be chemical-filled.
Although downstream dams have been helpful in intercepting the barrels, experts are concerned the chemical-filled barrels may explode if they slam into a dam at high speed.
The barrels will cross into Heilongjiang Province at 10 p.m. Saturday, Professor Liu Guoliang, a chemist leading Heilongjiang's retrieval team, estimates.
Jilin's Communist Party chief, Sun Zhengcai, and Governor, Wang Rulin, have ordered more vessels be mobilized to join in the retrieval effort.