Dozens missing in latest China mudslides

BEIJING: More than 60 people were missing in fresh mudslides triggered by heavy rains in southwest China on Wednesday, an official said, as the country continues to battle its worst flooding in a decade.

Roads, power lines and telecoms have been cut to Puladi township in Yunnan province, where a torrent of mud slammed into homes in the early hours of Wednesday as people were sleeping, a provincial government official said.

Rescuers have been sent to the affected area, in a remote and mountainous part of Yunnan on the border with Myanmar, to search for the 67 missing people, the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. The latest mudslides come 10 days after at least 1,270 people were killed in devastating mudslides in the northwestern province of Gansu, which virtually split the town of Zhouqu in two.

More than 470 others are missing in Zhouqu, where rescuers are still battling to get much-needed aid supplies to residents and prevent an outbreak of water-borne disease.

Another 15 people have been killed in landslides in an area of the southwestern province of Sichuan that is only just recovering from a massive earthquake in 2008 that left nearly 87,000 dead or missing.

The mudslides in Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan are the latest in a string of weather-related disasters across China after a summer of heavy rains. More than 2,100 people have so far been left dead or missing and 12 million evacuated nationwide, not including the toll from the Zhouqu incident, according to official government figures.