China mudslides leave 127 dead, 1,300 missing

At least 127 people were killed and nearly 1,300 missing Sunday after mudslides swept away homes and destroyed roads in northwestern China as the nation battled its worst flooding in a decade.

At least one village was buried entirely and deep rivers of sludge and rocks were hampering rescue efforts in the devastated region of Gansu province, where about 45,000 people have been evacuated, the government and state media said.

Hundreds of people took refuge on top of buildings to escape the floodwaters and sludge, anxiously waiting for rescuers or soldiers to retrieve them.

Authorities have sent more than 4,500 soldiers, police, firefighters and medics to help in search and rescue efforts after the landslides in the remote ethnically Tibetan region, triggered by a deluge of rain late Saturday.

Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in the mountainous region on Sunday after he and President Hu Jintao urged rescuers -- some using their bare hands -- to spare no effort to save lives in the latest natural disaster to strike the country.

Wen began inspecting the sludge covered area shortly after his arrival on Sunday afternoon and ordered rescuers to find survivors, according to state media.

"For those who were buried under the debris, now it's the most crucial time to save their lives," Wen was quoted as saying by Xinhua late Sunday.

At least 50,000 people have been affected by floods which submerged half of Zhouqu county at one point, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing Mao Shengwu, head of the affected Gannan prefecture.

The landslides swept mud, houses, cars and other debris into a river running through the county, blocking the waterway and triggering flooding in the valley, the government said.

One village was buried by the mudslides that levelled an area five kilometres (three miles) long and 500 metres (yards) wide, Xinhua said, as floodwaters reached as high as three storeys at one point.

State television broadcast images of local residents walking through streets clogged with mud and debris and pictures of buildings swept off their foundations or destroyed by the mudslides and flooding.

Other images showed buildings and vehicles partly submerged by muddy water and soldiers and local residents frantically shovelling mud as they searched for the missing.

Some 1,294 people were missing as of Sunday night, down from an earlier estimate of 2,000, Xinhua said, quoting the rescue headquarters in Zhouqu.

Reports said more than 680 people had been rescued.

So far rescuers have not been able to use heavy machinery because of the sludge, relying instead on shovels and their bare hands to search for survivors.

"It's very hard to locate the people washed away by floods. It's hard to say what their chances of survival are," said He Youxin, whose rescue team had so far saved 23 people and recovered 15 bodies.

Reports said 76 people had also been injured.

Torrential downpours had stopped, reports said, but the local weather bureau has forecast more rain in the coming days.

"The water of the Bailong River flowed into the county seat and many people were trapped," said Diemujiangteng, the head of Zhouqu county.

"Now the sludge has become the biggest problem to rescue operations. It's too thick to walk or drive through."

Some roads were covered with sludge as deep as two metres, Xinhua said.

More than 300 houses were buried in the landslides which destroyed roads and bridges and tore apart buildings while telecommunications, water, electricity and transport links have been cut in parts of the region.

"Someone said the fifth floor of my residential building has been submerged. People are busy looking for their family members and friends," local resident Li Tiankui was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Authorities have sent electricity generators, tents, instant noodles and bottled water to the region, about one third of whose residents are ethnic Tibetans.

According to government figures issued before the latest disaster, the number of people killed or missing in floods across China this year has risen to more than 2,100.

China's civil affairs ministry said Friday more than 12 million had been evacuated from their homes.

Large swathes of China have been hit by summer deluges that have triggered the worst floods in a decade which have destroyed 1.4 million homes and caused 275 billion yuan (41 billion dollars) in direct economic losses for the year.

China's northeast is the worst-hit area, with entire towns flooded and rivers bordering North Korea swollen to critical levels, prompting fears of deluges in both countries.

In North Korea, floods also washed away homes, roads, railways and farmland in the deeply impoverished nation, state media said, but gave no casualty figures.

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