Severe mud-rock flows in southwest China's Sichuan Province killed one, left 50 missing and trapped another 71.
The figure was disclosed Sunday by the local government of Danba County, in the east of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze of Sichuan Province.
The deceased was a female tourist from Shanghai and the missing people included 46 residents in three villages, four tourists from Shanghai and one employee of a tourist agency in Chengdu.
While two mud-rock flows rushed down from the mountains in Qiongshan Ravine, 33 km away from the Danba County, on 10:00 Friday night, a get-together was being held in a vacation village. Only a dozen people fled successfully.
In addition, 71 were trapped alive in a zone sandwiched between two mud-rock flows. And they had been got in touch. Rescuers tried to get over the mud and rocks and reach them as soon as possible.
A disaster relief team headed by governor Zhang Zhongwei and deputy governor Zhang Zuoha of the province arrived in the county early Sunday morning. The county government had asked people in the lower reaches to help search the missing.
The mud-rock flows had submerged about 20 hectares of farmland, destroyed 17 km of road and blocked the Dajinchuan River by building a three-meter-high dam.
(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2003)
