BEIJING (AP) — The demise toll climbed to 48 on Thursday as search efforts continued in southeastern China after a freeway part collapsed in a mountainous space, sending greater than 20 vehicles down a steep slope.
Officers within the metropolis of Meizhou mentioned three different folks had been unidentified, pending DNA testing. It wasn’t instantly clear if that they had died, which might convey the demise toll to 51. One other 30 folks had non-life-threatening accidents.
The collapse occurred about 2 a.m. on Wednesday after a month of heavy rains in a mountainous a part of Guangdong province. Automobiles fell down the slope and despatched up flames as they caught hearth.
The search was nonetheless ongoing, Meizhou metropolis Mayor Wang Hui mentioned at a late-afternoon information convention. No foreigners have been discovered among the many victims, he mentioned.
Search work has been hampered by rain and land and gravel sliding down the slope. The catastrophe left a curving earth-colored gash within the in any other case verdant forest panorama.
“As a result of among the autos concerned caught hearth, the problem of the rescue operation has elevated,” mentioned Wen Yongdeng, the Communist Get together secretary for the Meizhou emergency administration bureau.
“Many of the autos had been buried in soil throughout the collapse course of, with a big quantity of soil masking them,” he mentioned.
He added that the extended heavy rainfall has saturated soil within the space, “making it liable to secondary disasters throughout the rescue course of.”
