(Beijing) Torrential rains in China have left at least 20 dead and dozens missing, including in the collapse of a bridge.
Since Tuesday, large parts of the north and centre of the country have been hit by torrential rains, which have caused flooding and significant material damage.
A highway bridge over a river collapsed Friday night “due to heavy downpour and flash floods” in Shangluo in Shaanxi province, the official Xinhua news agency wrote Saturday. The death toll was 12 and more than 30 are missing.
A violent storm also caused a sudden rise in water levels in Ya’an, a town in the mountainous province of Sichuan in the southwest of the country, on Saturday, with an initial toll of more than 30 missing people.
PHOTO ZHANG LING, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Emergency services were mobilised on Saturday to try to find around thirty people.
Four of them were rescued but the bodies of eight others were found.
State television broadcast footage of the damaged bridge in Shaanxi province: a three-lane section is now in the waters of a river, while the structure appears to have held up in the opposite direction of traffic. A strong current is visible.
According to initial investigations, 17 cars and eight trucks fell into the river, Xinhua reported, raising fears of a higher toll in the coming hours.
Motorists screaming
As I was driving, “I noticed something was not normal in front of me” on the bridge, a witness told local media. “Motorists were yelling for me to brake and stop the car.”
“A truck in front did not stop and fell” into the void, added this witness, Mr. Meng.
Already in May, the collapse of a highway after heavy rains in southern China left 48 dead.
In remarks carried by CCTV, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “all efforts” to be focused on relief operations, “the priority” at the moment.
China is suffering from extreme weather this summer, with heatwaves in the north, while the south and east are hit by rainfall and flooding.
Climate change, which scientists say is linked to greenhouse gas emissions, is making such weather events more frequent and intense.
In Shaanxi, where the bridge collapsed on Friday, heavy rains in recent days have also left five people dead, while eight people are missing in Baoji, home to around 3.2 million people, according to a report released by Xinhua on Friday.
PHOTO ZOU JINGYI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Shaanxi, where the bridge collapsed on Friday, heavy rains in recent days have also left five dead and eight missing in Baoji.
State television showed images of neighborhoods completely flooded by muddy waters, with excavators and residents clearing away the damage.
The neighbouring semi-desert province of Gansu in the northwest and Henan in the centre have also been hit by heavy rain in recent days. In Nanyang, a year’s worth of rain fell earlier this week, according to CCTV.