Landslides triggered by heavy rains leave 20 missing in central China

Landslides leave 20 missing in China

BEIJING — Landslides triggered by flooding left at least 20 people missing in a mountain village Monday, as workers repaired roads, reservoirs and evacuated hundreds of thousands while heavy rains continued lashing China.

Rescuers searched for the missing in the village of Muzhu after days of rain sent hillsides tumbling through that and several other nearby villages in the central province of Shaanxi late Sunday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

In nearby Sichuan province, a weekend of torrential rains left 23 dead and forced nearly 600,000 to evacuate their homes, Xinhua said.

The death toll from summer storms is 146 with another 40 people still missing, mostly in regions along the Yangtze River Basin, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Along the Yangtze, emergency crews worked to drain overflowing reservoirs and pile up sandbags to prevent flooding. Rising river waters also put to the test the massive Three Gorges Dam, which this week is expected to see its highest water level since completion, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The report said water flows in the Yangtze could match those of 1998, one of the worst flood years in the past six decades.