About 1,000 tourists trapped in China's Xinjiang after avalanches
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[January 16, 2024]
BEIJING (Reuters) - Around 1,000 tourists remain stranded in a
remote holiday village after avalanches hit China's northwestern
Xinjiang region with metres-high snow and fickle weather impeding
evacuation, state TV reported on Tuesday.
Road access to Hemu village, a scenic destination near the borders of
Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia where the tourists were trapped, has
been cut off by avalanches for several days now. The village is situated
in Xinjiang's Altay Prefecture where continuous snowfall in some areas
has lasted 10 days, it said.
The heavy snowfall triggered dozens of avalanches along large sections
of highways in the Altay mountains leading to the Kanas scenic area, and
some tourists were lifted by helicopter to safety, Chinese state media
outlets reported over the weekend. |
![](../images/011624PIX/news_j90.jpg)
Tourists stranded as a result of avalanches hitting highways are
airlifted to safety by helicopter in Burqin County, Xinjiang province,
China in this screengrab from social media video released January 14,
2024. Video Obtained by Reuters/via REUTERS |
Snow brought by the avalanches reach as high as seven metres in
some parts and in many, was higher than snow clearing equipment,
CCTV said.
Work to clear the 50-km (31-mile) stretch of buried road started
a week ago.
Complicating the rescue and snow removal work were rocks, debris
and tree branches mixed in the snow, broken off as avalanches
gushed down pine and birch forest slopes towards a river valley,
rendering rotary snowplow vehicles useless. Rescuers have
resorted to shovels and excavators.
As weather changes rapidly in the mountainous area, the windows
for operating supply missions have been narrow too. A military
helicopter scheduled to send supplies - such as flour and fuel -
to Hemu village was delayed on Tuesday morning, CCTV said.
The highway management authorities in Altay said they have
organised 53 personnel and 31 sets of machinery and equipment
for the rescue and relief work.
"This avalanche situation is relatively special, we have seen
such heavy snowfall before, but we have not seen such high
frequency of avalanches," the head of the highway management
bureau, Zhao Jinsheng, told CCTV.
Zhao said he expected snow clearing work to restore access to
Hemu village to continue for some time due to the large volume
of snow on the last four kilometres (2.5 miles) of road affected
by the avalanche.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Qiaoyi Li; Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan)
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