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CHANGCHUN - A Chinese soldier drowned Friday in a river in Northeast China's Jilin province as he worked to retrieve chemical barrels that had been swept into the waterway, military authorities said Sunday.
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The man and four other soldiers were chaining boats together on the river to block the downstream passage of the thousands of barrels when a flash flood hit. The five were forced to jump into the rushing waters. All but Guan were rescued.
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 about 170 kilograms of either trimethyl chloro silicane or hexamethyl disilazane.
Workers had retrieved 5,365 barrels - some filled, some empty - by 9:30 am Sunday.
Tests show the water in the river is safe.