Heavy rains lasting more than 12 hours caused flash floods and landslides in southwest China's Yunnan province during an extended holiday weekend, Chinese state media reported, News.bg reports.
More than 4,800 residents of Gongshan county have been affected by the disaster, with about a third of them being urgently evacuated, the Xinhua news agency reported. There are no reports of casualties so far.
The natural disasters have destroyed roads, damaged buildings and washed away bridges, especially in hard-to-reach mountainous areas. Flooding along the Dulong River reached record levels, sweeping away a four-story building that had already been evacuated.
More than 600 tourists were stranded in rural tourist sites after access to them was cut off. By Sunday, about 500 of them had been rescued.
The hardest-hit mountain villages of Binzhongluo and Yuben in neighboring Deqing County, popular with tourists and mountaineers, remained cut off, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The heavy rains also caused power outages. Authorities are working to restore roads and power infrastructure.
Local disaster agencies issued a red weather warning on Friday night, which was downgraded to yellow on Saturday morning, under China's four-level warning system, from blue (lowest risk) to red (highest).