One hundred and twenty five people were sickened in a chemical plant gas leak accident after the factory was damaged in a mudslide yesterday morning in southwest China's Sichuan Province, local authorities said.

The sickened had been sent to hospital, while some 60 of them are still kept in hospital for observation in Nanxin Town, Maoxian County, said Li Bing, deputy chief of the emergency response office of the provincial health department.

Initial investigations show the leaked gas was chlorine, Li said. Heavy downpours have wreaked havoc in southern and southwestern China since Saturday.

In Maoxian County, eight people went missing after a mudslide hit Miancu village and damaged three factories and dozens more houses yesterday morning.