As a result of the incident, at least 36 people died and another 30 were injured and taken to hospital in a stable condition.
Rescue teams divided the area into 10 parts and searched for survivors with dogs and detection devices. Excavators and cranes were brought in to support.
The search effort was complicated by steady rain, with gravel and dirt falling at the site posing some risk to workers, a fire department official told Chinese media.
The collapse of the highway section left a “scar” on a steep slope in a wooded area. Witnesses to the incident said they heard a loud noise and saw a wide hole open up behind them after they passed the section of road just before it collapsed.
State broadcaster CCTV said the outburst was a “natural geological disaster” that occurred “under the impact of persistent heavy rains”.
Heavy downpours have lashed the industrial province of Guangdong, which has Canton as its capital, in recent weeks, causing severe flooding and landslides. For the past few days, the torrential rains have been much heavier than normal for this time of the year just ahead of the monsoon season.
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“Intensification of climate change” increases the likelihood of “heavy rains that usually occur only in the summer months,” Yin Zhijie, in charge of hydrological forecasting at China’s Ministry of Water Resources, told national radio last month.
PHOTO: Profimedia
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