China town devastated by mudslides :

Atleast 127 killed, 2000 missing

CHINA: Mudslides engulfed a town in northwest China on Sunday, killing at least 127 people and leaving 2,000 residents missing as rescue teams dug through crushed homes and readied a blast to dislodge debris blocking a river.

The mudslides hit Zhouqu County in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province, an area dominated by steep and barren hills, after torrential rains late on Saturday, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.

Runoff from the downpour banked up behind a landslide in a narrow valley near the main town in Zhouqu.

The banked up water on the Bailong River triggered flooding and mudslides that struck the town at midnight, smashed a small hydro station, and left at least 80 dead, according to Xinhua and Chinese television.

With over 2,000 missing, that toll could rise sharply, and Premier Wen Jiabao headed to the scene to oversee rescue efforts.

“A preliminary estimate is that 50,000 people have been affected by the disaster,” the Chinese television news said. “About half of the county seat was covered.”

About 2,800 troops and a hundred medical workers were sent to help rescue efforts, Xinhua said.

“Now the sludge has become the biggest problem to rescue operations. It’s too thick to walk or drive through,” said the head of the county, Diemujiangteng, according to Xinhua.

The disaster will add to the heavy toll from floods in China, Pakistan and other parts of Asia this summer.

In China, more than 1,000 people have been killed this year in floods that have devastated some areas of central and southern China. Storms in northeast Jilin province killed or left missing more than 100 people in recent days.

Pictures from Zhouqu showed mud and water in the town streets, and troops frantically digging through debris to hunt for victims, including a boy pulled from a shattered house. Xinhua said the mud dumped on the streets was up to a metre deep.

“There was thunder and huge rain, and then the landslides started coming down,” said a resident of Zhouqu contacted by Reuters. He gave only his surname, Bai.

“That was about midnight, so some people must have been in their homes, asleep and didn’t know what was happening,” he said. Beijing, Sunday, Reuters