Nine ships, one carrying 123 passengers, were stranded on the Yangtze River after high winds forced the closure of the Three Gorges Dam ship locks for 13 hours.

The 62-kilometer-an-hour wind swept through the Three Gorges area at 10:00 PM Tuesday, forcing water traffic management authorities to close all 10 ship locks until 1:00 PM Wednesday, said the Yangtze River Three Gorges Navigational Bureau.

The suspension was the longest since the ship locks at the Three Gorges Dam opened in June 2003. Navigation has been suspended for a total of 60 hours since then. About 200 ships pass the dam daily.

An official with the navigational bureau said as a safety precaution the ship locks are closed whenever the wind exceeds 39 kilometers per hour.

On May 4 more than 2,000 passengers were stranded at the ship locks for five hours.

The bureau has sent an expert panel to investigate the case and work out better safety regulations.

The Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze's middle reaches is the world's largest water control facility. Its dam, 185 meters high, was completed on June 20, 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2007)