A landslide in China’s mountainous southwest has dammed up a major tributary of the Yangtze River, posing a threat to a hydroelectric dam and communities downstream, state media said.
The landslide occurred on the Dadu River in Sichuan Province’s Hanyuan County late on Thursday, leaving two people dead and 19 injured, Xinhua news agency reported.
It was not immediately known how many people were missing, Xinhua said.
The massive flow of mud and rocks blocked the river, leaving only a trickle flowing through to the Pubugou hydroelectric dam, the report said.
Authorities have ordered the evacuation of communities below the landslide as the backed-up water had begun to seep through the debris, escalating fears it would soon burst through and send torrents of water downstream, it said.
Torrential rain and landslides have killed nearly 70 people and left almost as many missing in south and central China since the beginning of June, state media reported last week.
On July 24, another landslide on the Dadu River engulfed makeshift housing for a dam construction crew in Shalian, leaving about 50 people missing and four dead, earlier reports said.
Parts of the Dadu River run through areas that were rocked by a huge, 8.0-magnitude earthquake in May last year that also triggered landslides in Sichuan’s mountainous regions. Nearly 87,000 people were left dead or missing in the quake.
Meanwhile, China Daily reported on Thursday that at least 10 people had been killed this week and one remained missing in rain-induced floods in southwest China’s Chongqing, a major municipality on the banks of the Yangtze.
The flooding, which is expected to become the worst on this section of the Yangtze since 2004, has also forced the evacuation of 123,000 people, the daily said, citing the civil affairs ministry.
Ten thousand houses in the area have been toppled, while 16,000 others have been damaged, the report said.
The government on Wednesday issued an alert urging intensified efforts to fight flooding along the Yangtze, China’s largest river, the paper said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was