Mud flows on the China-Nepal Highway, which was disrupted by a massive landslide on Friday, have injured nine disaster relief staff sent to clear the road.

All of the injured are out of danger. However, the 110-meter destroyed section of the road remained blocked as of Monday, according to the disaster relief team.

Traffic and police authorities in Tibet Autonomous Region have sent more than 200 workers and armed police to repair the road section 42 km from the Friendship Bridge, which marks the China-Nepal border.

The landslide, triggered by heavy rain, initially stranded more than 1,000 people. These people and the vehicles they were traveling in have been dispersed from a small mountain path opened by the disaster relief staff.

The landslide, whose volume was estimated at 80,000 cubic meters of debris, was the largest such danger since the highway opened in 1965, according to the transport department.

Experts said the geological structure along the highway on the southern face of the Himalayas is fragile and prone to landslides during the rainy season, which runs from May to September in the region.

The 827-km China-Nepal Highway, linking Lhasa and the Friendship Bridge at the border, is a key commercial link between China and countries to the south. The Zham Port, the largest in Tibet, handles more than 70 percent of the region's imports and exports.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2008)