BEIJING (AFP) – The death toll from a highway collapse in southern China’s Guangdong province has risen to 48, local officials said yesterday, as adverse conditions complicated rescue efforts.
Heavy rains caused a stretch of road running from Meizhou city towards Dabu county to cave in at around 2.10am on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Over 20 vehicles careened into the nearly 18-metre-long gash in the tarmac and plummeted down the steep slope below.
Guangdong, a densely populated industrial powerhouse, has been hit by a string of disasters attributed to extreme weather events in recent weeks.
The storms have been much heavier than expected this time of year and have been linked to climate change.
The highway collapse had caused the deaths of 48 people as of 2pm yesterday, secretary of Meizhou’s Communist Party committee Ma Zhengyong said at a press briefing.
The toll was up from 36 people yesterday morning.
“In addition, there are three people whose DNA is undergoing further comparison and confirmation,” Ma said.
It was not immediately clear whether those three victims were included in the toll of 48.
A further 30 people were injured, with one in a “severe” condition and the rest stable, said Liu Lebin, Meizhou’s health bureau deputy party secretary.
Footage by state broadcaster CCTV showed excavators digging through the muddy hillside below the collapsed road.
Nearby, a crane lifted charred, wrecked vehicles onto a lorry as people watched from behind a cordon.
State media called the road collapse a “natural geological disaster” caused by the “impact of persistent heavy rain”. President Xi Jinping ordered officials to “go all-out in on-site rescue work and treatment of the injured, and arrange for the management of risks and hidden dangers in a timely manner”, CCTV said yesterday.
A city official said adverse weather conditions, the risk of secondary disasters and the large number of trapped, burned and buried vehicles were complicating rescue and recovery efforts.
