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Snowstorm leaves thousands of people stranded in China

The worst snowfalls in a decade caused traffic chaos across much of China yesterday as millions of people tried to head home for the Lunar New Year holiday, state media reported.

Tens of thousands of travelers were left stranded as transport in several regions across the center, east and south of the country were hit by the bad weather.

Several highways and airports, including in the central city of Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, were shut, state-run television CCTV reported.

The worst-hit provinces were Anhui in the east, central Hubei and Hunan, which supply millions of migrant workers who work in the cities and return to their families to celebrate Lunar New Year, which this year falls on Feb. 7.

Many trains were delayed in Hunan along the key railway line linking Beijing with the main southern city of Guangzhou, after snow and ice damaged overhead power lines for the electric trains, the official Xinhua news agency said.

About 40,000 passengers were stranded at various stations along the route, Xinhua said, quoting a spokesman for the Guangzhou Railway Group Corp.

He said the company had dispatched some 10,000 workers to repair the damaged power lines and sent out more than 100 diesel locomotives to pull the electric trains and transport stranded passengers.

Meanwhile, in the southwestern province of Guizhou, authorities closed several roads and 27,000 travelers were stranded waiting for their buses.

Many parts of the country have been hit by the heaviest snowfalls in a decade, which have claimed at least 21 lives so far, state media reported.

The meteorological agency on Friday warned of further snowfalls in central and western China over the weekend.

At the same time, the government called for all the services concerned to do everything possible to get fresh produce to markets and avoid shortages, which would fuel further inflation.
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