Landslides leave 38 missing, 4,000 stranded in SW China
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At least 38 people are missing after rain-triggered floods and landslides ravaged Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province early Saturday.
No casualties had been reported, a spokesperson with the county government said.
Heavy rain triggered landslides in several towns of Wenchuan County, where an 8-magnitude earthquake claimed almost 70,000 lives on May 12, 2008.
A 200-meter section of National Highway 213, the only highway linking Wenchuan to the provincial capital of Chengdu, was inundated with water four meters deep.
More than 4,000 people and about 1,300 vehicles were stranded on blocked roads in the county. The total included more than 300 people in Yingxiu Town, which was the epicenter of the 2008 quake, and more than 700 in the Sanjiang tourist area.
Around 10,000 residents have been evacuated. The county government has designated schools and office buildings of township governments as temporary shelters.
Meanwhile, floods destroyed prefabricated buildings of the hospital in Yingxiu.
In Yinxing Township, a barrier lake was formed by the landslide in a section of the Minjiang River, said the spokesperson.
