China: more than 700 dead in landslides
Posted on August 10, 2010 by albert
Over seven hundred people died in landslides in Gansu province in China, announced Tuesday, August 10 provincial authorities, doubling the previous record, and over a thousand people are missing.
The landslides took place Saturday night in this region mostly populated by Tibetans, after heavy rains. They spent about fifty thousand people.
Mud, houses and all kinds of debris were swept into a river bathing the district, making out of bed and causing the worst floods the country has seen in ten years. The mudslides have covered an area five kilometers long and 500 meters wide, according to Xinhua news agency, muddy water in some places reaching the third floor of the buildings still standing.
The four thousand five hundred rescuers still searching for survivors but the hope for saving lives is becoming more tenuous.