The collapse of a highway in southern China left forty-eight people dead, according to a new report released Thursday, May 2, by the New China news agency following a press conference organized by the city of Meizhou, Guangdong province. Thirty people were also injured, state media said earlier, adding that their lives are no longer in danger.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered authorities to “put extra effort into on-site rescue operations and treatment of the injured”, CCTV reported on Thursday. Around 500 people were dispatched to the scene to help with the rescue efforts.
The provincial government has “mobilized specialized elite forces and went out of their way to carry out search and rescue operations”according to New China.
Twenty vehicles were “trapped” by the collapse of a section of road, between the city of Meizhou and the county of Dabu, which occurred Wednesday morning around 2:10 a.m. (8:10 p.m. Tuesday, Paris time), involving fifty-four people in total, said New China. An initial report showed twenty-four people killed.
Public broadcaster CCTV said the collapse was a “natural geological disaster” which happened “under the impact of persistent heavy rain”.
Torrential rains
Heavy rains have hit the industrial province of Guangdong, of which Guangzhou is the capital, in recent weeks, causing severe flooding and landslides. In recent days, the torrential rains have been much heavier than normal for this time of year, just before the monsoon season.
“Intensification of climate change” increases the likelihood of heavy rains that generally only appear during the summer months, Yin Zhijie, head of hydrological forecasting at China’s Ministry of Water Resources, told China National Radio last month.