China residents evacuated from homes after devastating mudslide as search for victims continues

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in south-western China after a devastating mudslide. Heavy rain has caused devastating floods and hillsides to collapse.

State media have confirmed that two people have been killed, with 16 missing on Saturday following a mudslide on the outskirts of the city of Xi’an. Over 81,000 people were evacuated from high-risk areas of Sichuan province, after heavy rain caused hillsides to collapse and disrupted traffic.

In other parts of the country, a powerful storm has lashed the north-east, which led to a breach in a river dyke and the cancellation of over 20 trains.Some parts of China experience heavy rainfall and flooding every summer, but this year has been unusually severe in some areas, despite other regions struggling with drought that is damaging crops.

Rescuers arrived at the scene of the mudslide on Friday as they began searching for survivors on the outskirts of the city of Xi’an. Xinhua, a Chinese news agency, has reported that roads, bridges and power supplies have been damaged.

State TV in the country showed over 500 military members working in the dark on Friday night to close a 90-metre-long breach in a river dyke in Fuyu, in the Jilin province. The team used steel rods in the ground to pile up hundreds of sandbags to fill the gap.

Storm Khanun, which has battered the country, has been downgraded from typhoon status, after forecasts said the storm was set to dump up to one-and-a-half inches of rain per hour in the north-eastern city of Changchun and the surrounding Jilin province.

A total of 142 people across China have been killed by the flooding, landslides and mountain torrents in July, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. The Chinese government has also revealed that the country’s capital, Beijing and the neighbouring Hebei province suffered their heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years, last week.