Death toll from south China road collapse rises to 36

A collapse of an expressway section in China’s Guangdong province caused vehicles to plunge and killed 36 people while injuring another 30, state media reported on Thursday, as millions in the country travel for the May Day holiday break.

The collapse, triggered by heavy rain, occurred at around 2:10 a.m. on Wednesday on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway, Xinhua news agency reported, adding that the collapsed section was 17.9 meters in length and caused 23 vehicles to plunge.

Meizhou is one of the areas in southern China’s Guangdong that has been badly hit by heavy rain and hail since late April which set off dangerous mudslides, inundated homes and destroyed bridges.

Relentless rains, hail and winds of near hurricane intensity battered southern China, forcing the evacuation of an entire town of more than 1,700 people in the province of Guangdong, media said on Thursday.

Buses and helicopters ferried to safety all the residents of the township of Jiangwan in the Shaoguan region as a new round of floods arrived, the reports said, citing local authorities.

“I have never seen such heavy rain in my life, nor have people older than me,” said Jiang, a 72-year-old resident who gave only his surname, according to state-run China Daily.

Power lines were downed and mobile telephone networks disrupted across the region, as the rains set off dangerous mudslides, inundated homes and destroyed bridges.

Since the arrival of powerful storms last week, scenes of havoc have played out across the province, once dubbed the “factory floor of the world”, as dozens of local rainfall records have been shattered for the month of April.