According to a new toll released by state media on Thursday, the death toll after a section of highway collapsed in southern China has reached 36.
Xinhua news agency reported Thursday morning that “36 people lost their lives and 30 were injured,” noting that the lives of those injured were not in danger. Twenty vehicles were involved in the overturning of the highway section between Meizhou City and Dabu County in Guangdong Province, an incident that occurred around 02:10 on Wednesday, Digi24 notes.
Xinhua indicated that a total of 54 people were involved. State television CCTV described the surprise as a “natural geological disaster”, produced “under the impact of persistent heavy rains”. In recent weeks, torrential rains have lashed the industrial province of Guangdong, with its capital at Canton, causing severe flooding and landslides.
These heavy rains were much heavier than usual for this time of the year, just before the start of the monsoon season. Yin Zhijie, in charge of hydrological forecasting at China’s Ministry of Water Resources, said that “intensification of climate change” increases the likelihood of “heavy rains that usually only occur in the summer months,” in an interview with the national radio station.
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