Rains leave 33 more dead in China

Afp, Beijing

Torrential rains yesterday battered several parts of western China, killing at least 33 people and heightening fears of a disease outbreak in a mudslide-ravaged town where more than 1,150 have died.

Health authorities said survivors of the deadly floods and landslides in Zhouqu, a remote town in the mountains of Gansu province in China's northwest, were facing a grim situation after clinics were damaged and vaccines ruined.

The bad weather showed no signs of letting up, with at least 33 people killed and 32 missing after floods and landslides in other parts of Gansu and neighbouring Sichuan province, as China battles its worst flooding in a decade.

In Zhouqu, 588 people are still missing after the weekend avalanche of mud and rocks, which levelled an area five kilometres (three miles) long and 300 metres wide.