Landslides kill five in south

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-6-30  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

FIVE people are dead and four are missing after torrential rain triggered landslides in south China's Guangdong Province yesterday.

The latest deaths add to the official death toll of 14 announced by provincial authorities on Saturday.

Three of yesterday's victims were night workers at a quarry who were buried about 2:25am in Longgang District, Shenzhen. They were rescued, but died later in hospital.

Another landslide at 6:30am in Mumianwan Community, Longgang District, damaged four apartment blocks housing 75 people.

Sixty-one people managed to escape and 10 were rescued, but one victim died on the way to hospital. Rescuers were last night still searching for four missing residents.

Tropical storm Fengshen made landfall at Shenzhen early on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain. Rainfall in the city in the past five days hit a record 1,300 millimeters.

A 19-year-old migrant worker from Nanchong in Sichuan Province was reported earlier yesterday to have been killed after falling into the sluice of a swollen reservoir in Shenzhen. Rescuers found his body three hours later in a nearby fishing pool.

Heavy rain this summer has wrought havoc in China. From June 6 to 16, nine provinces in the east, south and southwest had experienced torrential rain, leaving at least 63 dead, 13 missing and 1.6 million people displaced, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.