2023-08-30 06:33:28
Four people have died and dozens more missing following heavy rains battered southwest China last week, state media reported on Wednesday.
On August 21, heavy rains fell on Jinyang, a mountainous county in Sichuan province, but the damage toll had not been communicated. On Wednesday, state broadcaster CCTV said the storms triggered major flooding which included engulfing a steel processing site, where more than 200 people worked. “For the moment, four people have died in the floods and 48 others are missing,” according to the CCTV channel, which specified that the rescue operations were still continuing.
Five people were arrested on suspicion of “failing to report or falsely reporting a security incident”, according to the same source.
President Xi Jinping ordered authorities to “do everything in their power to search for missing persons (…) and comfort their families,” the channel reported. The incident “should be thoroughly investigated and the responsible parties should be dealt with according to law”, Xi Jinping said according to CCTV.
China has experienced several extreme weather events in recent months. Events which, according to scientists, will be more and more frequent due to climate change.
In July, at least 78 people died in a violent storm and major flooding that hit the north of the country following Typhoon Doksuri struck.
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