Beijing: Rescuers in China were searching on Tuesday for 30 people buried in landslides, as flood waters from days of heavy rain surged past the world’s largest dam, the Three Gorges.
Soldiers used bulldozers to plow through debris in search of survivors on Tuesday in the Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, while workers in other parts of the country scrambled to drain overflowing reservoirs and pile up sandbags to prevent further flooding, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Three people were killed late on Sunday night by landslides in Lingao county in the Shaanxi province and 17 were reported missing in the area. In all, flooding and landslides from rain-soaked hillsides in Shaanxi have killed 37 and left another 97 missing.
In nearby the Sichuan province, rescuers searched for 13 missing people after a landslide hit the village of Xujiaping on Tuesday morning, burying homes and blocking roads.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs said that the death toll from summer storms currently stood at 146, with another 40 people missing since Friday, figures which are certain to rise as the flooding continues.
Much of the worst-affected areas lie along the Yangtze River Basin.
Xinhua and the state broadcaster China Central Television reported that the Three Gorges Dam was facing its highest water levels ever when a flood crest passed the dam on Tuesday morning.
The government cited flooding control along the Yangtze as one of the main reasons for the $23 billion (Dh84.46 billion) dam project that forced the relocation of 1.4 million people.
