Torrential rains in over 60 counties and cities in Sichuan
Province since Saturday morning had claimed 14 lives and left
six missing by 8 AM yesterday, according to the provincial disaster
relief office.
Six were killed when a huge cinder heap collapsed and buried a
brick kiln in Xinhua Village, Muchuan County at about 6 AM on
Tuesday.
Witnesses said a rainstorm-triggered flood caused a wall at a
paper mill to collapse, sending tens of thousands of cubic meters
of cinder onto a small brick kiln at which sixteen people were
working.
Three managed to escape at the time, and another six were saved by
rescue workers and are now receiving treatment in hospital,
according to a county government official. One person is still
unaccounted for.
Two counties in Sichuan had an estimated rainfall of 200 mm in
three days, and the disaster relief office said there have been
direct economic losses of 107 million yuan (US$12.5 million) in the
province, almost half to agriculture.
(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2005)