Beijing: Nine persons have been killed in a road accident in Guizhou province, even as paralysed transport and power supply were being restored in snow-hit parts of China, authorities said here today.

The mishap occurred when an overloaded minibus veered off an ice-covered road, Xinhua news agency quoting police. The victims included seven men and two women and the cause of the mishap was under investigation, it said.

The province was hit by overnight sleet today, which made the ice on the roads worse, police said. Meanwhile, the Disaster Relief and Emergency Command Centre under the Cabinet said rail and highway transport was "quite normal" throughout the country.

The worst-ever snowstorm, sleet and rain in the last five decades, 100 years in some parts, had brought the traffic to a standstill, stranding millions of passengers heading home for their most important Spring Festival. Power and water supplies were also disrupted and houses were uprooted, leaving at least 80 people dead in the disaster.

Some 6,544 power transmission lines or 65.4 per cent of the total damaged ones, had been restored and coal supply for power production increased by 4.34 million tonnes for this month, Xinhua said.

Nearly 20-state owned major coal mines have been asked to step up power output to feed the plants as 70 per cent of Chinas energy production is coal driven, it said. Current stocks can help the plants run for 11 days, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission said.

Source : PTI