BEIJING — A group of Vietnamese tourists who became trapped by a landslide amid deadly weeklong storms that have killed at least 86 people have reached a major town, state media reported Sunday.
At least 100 tourists, including the 38 Vietnamese, became trapped Friday night in the northwest province of Gansu after a landslide cut off traffic, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. They were en route to a nature reserve in Sichuan province, which has been hit the hardest by the storms, and had reached accommodation by later that night following road repair work to free them.
They finally arrived in the central city of Xi'an on Sunday morning, but have canceled their travel plans, Xinhua said, citing local authorities. A man on duty at Xi'an city government Sunday said he had no information to share. The whereabouts of the remaining tourists was unknown.
Sichuan has reported at least 48 storm-related deaths over the past week. A massive mudslide that struck a scenic resort outside the city of Dujiangyan in Sichuan on Wednesday killed 43 people, the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily said Saturday.
An entire hillside collapsed onto clusters of holiday cottages where city dwellers escape summer heat, a survivor told Xinhua.
Flooding in Sichuan was the worst in 50 years for some areas, with more than 220,000 people forced to evacuate.
Mudslides and flooding are common in China's mountainous areas, killing hundreds of people every year, but in some areas the current floods are already the worst in half a century.
In the northwest province of Shaanxi, 23 people died in landslides or house collapses. At least 12 workers were killed in the northern province of Shanxi when a violent rainstorm collapsed an unfinished coal mine workshop. Another three people were drowned in a car in Hebei province outside Beijing.
