Accident
Many dead after expressway collapse in China
Firefighters work at the scene of an accident on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Guangdong Province. photo
© –/XinHua/dpa
The south of China has been hit by heavy rain for days. The authorities warned of possible landslides and other dangers – now there are fatalities.
After a road collapsed on a highway in the southern Chinese province Guangdong’s death toll has risen to 24. Chinese media had previously reported 19 deaths.
As the state news agency Xinhua reported, around 30 people were still being treated in hospitals. 20 vehicles crashed in the accident early Wednesday morning, Xinhua said. It had rained a lot in Guangdong in the past few days.
Witnesses told local media that they heard a loud noise and saw a hole several meters wide open behind them after they drove past the section of road that was about to collapse.
Photos show that a roadway partially collapsed and was torn away. The destroyed section is on a slope, which probably contributed to the instability of the terrain. Other images and videos on social media showed smoke and fire at the scene of the accident.
The collapsed section of road near Meizhou city on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway was about 18 meters long and had an area of about 184 square meters, according to CCTV. After the accident, around 500 police, fire and other authorities were involved in the rescue work. The cause of the accident is currently being investigated.
Heavy rains in the province
Although Guangdong Province is used to heavy rainfall, it is currently unusually heavy. Many streams in the Pearl River Delta swelled threateningly. Flooding was also reported in towns and villages north and south of Guangzhou.
Television images from the past few days showed rescue workers wading up to their chests in floodwaters and bringing older people out of their homes. Elsewhere, the helpers drove in inflatable boats through streets that were otherwise filled with cars.
Landslides are considered particularly dangerous in the mountainous regions of China during heavy rainfall. At the end of January, more than 30 people were killed in a serious landslide in a village in the southwest of the country. Every year in China, several hundred people die as a result of severe storms, floods and other natural disasters.