Beijing, Aug 27 (PTI) As many as 588 people are reportedly missing in China’s Tibet autonomous region after a massive mudslide hit a border area with Nepal, official media reported on Thursday.
Two local villagers have been rescued so far, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday updating the casualty figures.
According to the report, the mudslide, which occurred on the Nepalese side, struck Gyirong Port in Gyirong County in Tibet on Wednesday morning.
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday ordered all-out efforts to search for and rescue people missing after devastating flash floods swept through villages and towns near the China-Nepal border area in Tibet, causing heavy casualties.
The mudslide left three people dead and 588 others missing, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a directing group of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theatre Command which looks after the India-China border in Tibet was dispatched to the affected area on Thursday to coordinate joint rescue operations by military personnel in mudslide-hit Gyirong County close to the Nepal border.
Carried by the Y-20 transport aircraft the group will organise military forces to assist in disaster relief efforts, Xinhua report said.
The command responded immediately following the disaster, mobilising multiple rescue forces to the affected area to assist in road clearance, disaster assessment, search and rescue operations, and relocation of affected residents.
The team dispatched will assume unified command over PLA and Armed Police Force rescue units, with aviation, medical, transportation, and engineering corps fully prepared for timely operations when they are needed, the report said.
The Indian Embassy in China on Wednesday has issued an advisory about contact points for the stranded Indians caught in the flash floods in the Tibet-Nepal border to seek assistance. PTI KJV AMS
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