Rain ravages Guizhou, mudslide closes highway Rescuers dig out a resident buried in debris of a collapsed house in Bijie, Guizhou Province...

Rain ravages Guizhou, mudslide closes highway

Rescuers dig out a resident buried in debris of a collapsed house in Bijie, Guizhou Province, Tuesday. Photo: CFP

Six people have died and five others have been injured after heavy rains lasting from Monday evening to Tuesdaymorning, drenched Southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said.

Downpours battered 18 cities and counties in Guizhou, affecting more than 180,000 people, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

The storms damaged over 1,500 houses, causing 207 to collapse. Some 631 people have been relocated to avoid possible flooding.

Heavy rains and floods have also affected more than 4,728 hectares of farmland, said officials with the department.

At 10 am yesterday, the Guizhou disaster relief office and civil affairs department jointly initiated a level-4 emergency response, the highest level. It sent relief supplies and funds to disaster-hit areas.

Meanwhile, a rainstorm-triggered landslide disrupted traffic on a stretch of national highway in neighboring Chongqing Municipality yesterday.

The landslide, which occurred before noon, dumped 10,000 cubic meters of earth and stone near the Wulingshan Tunnel on No. 319 National Highway. Traffic from Qianjiang district to Pengshui county in Chongqing was halted, Zhou Xinguo, deputy director of the district's transportation commission, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

No casualties have been reported as a result of the landslide, and crews have rushed to the site to clear away debris.

The road is not expected to reopen until sometime on Thursday, according to Zhou.

Xinhua - Global Times