The village of Hemu in China has been cut off from the outside world for days due to heavy snowfall and several avalanches. According to state television reports, the first tourists have now been flown out of the town.
Tourists were stuck in a village cut off by avalanches in China’s Xinjiang province in the northwest of the country for about a week. The first holidaymakers from the town of Hemu could now be flown out, as Chinese state television reported.
According to this, a total of around 1,000 holidaymakers are said to have stayed in the completely snow-covered village in the Kanas National Park. The national park is located in the border area with Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. According to the Reuters news agency, there has been persistent heavy snowfall in the mountainous area for around a week and a half, which has caused dozens of avalanches.
The television now broadcast the first images of tourists being flown out of the village by helicopter. The flights also bring food and other supplies to the town. A total of around 35 tons of relief goods are to be transported to the Chinese province.
China did not publish reports about possible victims from the avalanches. In broadcast interviews, the tourists who were brought to safety said they were fine.
The access to the village of Hemu will probably be blocked for days. The first holidaymakers were able to leave the town, which was cut off from the outside world, by helicopter, as images from Chinese state television show.
Meters of snow block the access road
The clearing of the access road to Hemu has been going on for around a week, as Reuters quoted Chinese state television as saying. The snow is sometimes up to seven meters deep.
In total, around 350 kilometers of roads in the province are said to have been buried by the avalanches, reported the dpa news agency. According to Reuters, clearing the routes is made even more difficult by fallen trees and rubble that fell in the avalanches. Snow plows sometimes couldn’t get through the masses of snow, so the emergency services involved had to resort to shovels and excavators. According to the administration in the region, more than 50 employees are said to be involved in the evacuation.
The head of the road construction department, Zhao Jinsheng, spoke on Chinese state television of an “extraordinary situation”. There has been similarly heavy snowfall in the area in the past, “but never so many avalanches.” The head of the authority assumed that it would take a few more days until the road to Hemu could finally be cleared.