Global Times reported that China is suffering an unusually heavy rain that caused a series of serious landslides, killing at least 7 people and leaving dozens missing in the past 2 days. Hundreds of rescue workers, including the army, have been mobilized to race against time to search for survivors.
In the early morning of May 23, a flash flood accompanied by a landslide hit a village in Long Thang district, Que Lam city, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Southern China).
According to initial assessments by local authorities, at least 8 people are suspected of being missing. 10 houses were severely damaged, and rescue forces are still trying to approach the scene to search for buried people.
Just one day before, Guizhou province in southwestern China also experienced heavy rain, making the terrain unbearable in mountainous areas, with landslides occurring consecutively in many localities.
At least four people have been killed - two in Xuong Thach town and two in neighboring Qingdao village, according to China's central broadcaster CCTV.
In Thanh Duong alone, the landslide buried 8 households with a total of 19 people, many of whom are still missing.
As of May 23, southern provinces in China recorded at least seven deaths and dozens of others missing due to heavy rains over the past week, especially in Guangdong and Guangxi.
The China Meteorological Administration has continuously issued warnings about the risk of extreme rain, flash floods and serious landslides in the southern mountainous provinces.
The authorities have raised the emergency response level to level 3 - the third highest level in the warning scale of 4 levels - for heavy rain in Guizhou and neighboring provinces such as Hunan and Jiangxi.
More than 400 rescue workers, including military soldiers and firefighters, have been dispatched to hot spots to help search for missing people, evacuate residents and reinforce areas at risk of further landslides.
Meteorological experts and Chinese officials warn that extreme weather in the country of more than a billion people is becoming increasingly unpredictable and dangerous due to the obvious impact of climate change. Hotter summer, longer heat waves, and especially unusually heavy rains are appearing with higher frequency, causing heavy damage to mountainous areas and riverside areas.
As the rainy season has just begun, local and central governments in China are stepping up disaster risk precautions, from ensuring the safety of mountain routes, giving early warnings to people, to developing emergency evacuation plans in high-risk areas.
