9 people buried in vehicles after heavy storms in earthquake zone

Three people were killed and six injured in a landslide on Thursday near a village in Lushan county, Sichuan province.

The landslide also blocked the road from Lushan county to Baoxing county in Ya'an city.

The two counties were hit by a magnitude-7 earthquake on April 20.

The landslide occurred after heavy rainfall, burying nine people in three cars. Two people died at the scene and another person died at Lushan People's Hospital.

The other six people were taken to Ya'an People's Hospital. Three suffered serious injuries.

Huang Shan, a doctor from a People's Liberation Army hospital who was dispatched to Lushan after the quake, said one man is in critical condition and another man will need to have his legs amputated after they were crushed during the landslide.

Li Hongxia, head nurse of Lushan People's Hospital who took part in the rescue effort, said the victim who died in the hospital was a boy about 5 years old.

"He wasn't breathing when we got to him. The emergency rescue lasted more than an hour, but we lost him in the end," Li said.

Lushan county authorities said they had put up a wire fence along the road in case of a landslide, but the rocks were so heavy that they tore through it.

They said the victims have not been identified.

Zhou Quanzhi, deputy director of Ya'an government's information office, said the local government will impose stricter traffic controls on the road.

"Traffic policemen have been deployed to control traffic on the road since the quake. From 2 to 5 pm, no cars were allowed to go in the direction of Baoxing county," he said. "After the landslide, the time span of traffic control expanded for an hour to 2 to 6 pm every day."

He also said that after the landslide, Ya'an city warned people about geological disasters along roads in quake-hit areas, especially ones along mountains.

Zhou said it's unclear how long it will take to repair the road.

The bureau of land and resources in Ya'an said about 1,800 millimeters of rain falls in the city every year, and the recent earthquake, together with the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, also greatly increased the risk of geological disasters.

Contact the writers at dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn and wangqingyun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/10/2013 page5)