Beijing, Aug 9: At least 17 people have died and 33 others are missing in torrents and landslides in China in the last 48 hours, official media here reported on Friday.President Xi Jinping has urged all-out search and rescue efforts, and flood prevention and disaster relief work after mountain torrents hit northwest Gansu province on Thursday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
At least 10 people were killed and 33 others listed missing in mountain torrents in Gansu province, it said.
In another incident, seven people died and seven others injured following a rain-triggered landslide in Guangzhou, the capital of China’s southern Guangdong province, on Wednesday, local officials said on Friday.
The landslide occurred in Dayuan Village in Guangzhou’s Baiyun District, trapping 14 people and damaging multiple houses, according to the district’s emergency management bureau.
The injured were sent to the hospital.
On-site cleanup work is ongoing, along with geological hazard risk assessments in affected and surrounding areas. Safety inspections and evaluations of residential buildings will also be carried out to support follow-up work, Xinhua reported.
In Gansu, torrential rain pounded Yuzhong, which is under the jurisdiction of the provincial capital city of Lanzhou, and other areas of Lanzhou on Thursday evening, with the maximum precipitation reaching 220.2 mm by noon Friday.
Several townships in Yuzhong have been seriously affected, the report said.
Flood waters mixed with uprooted trees blocked the roads with mud deposits.
The torrents also damaged several houses and vehicles.
More than 2,700 rescue personnel have been dispatched by provincial authorities, along with 980 vehicles and pieces of machinery and 8,530 sets of emergency supplies.
Search and rescue efforts for the missing, infrastructure repairs, and the evacuation and resettlement of affected residents are underway.
Several provinces in China, including Beijing, are currently experiencing heavy rains and floods. Forty-four people were killed and nine went missing in rain-triggered floods in Beijing two weeks ago.
The dead included 31 people from a nursing home in the Miyun district of Beijing.