Beijing: Chinese authorities evacuated about 200 people living near the Three Gorges Dam in central China because of a landslide, state media reported today.

The landslide hit yesterday in Hubei province, inundating 37 homes and a primary school with rocks and mud, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Residents were evacuated to a temporary shelter before the landslide hit and no casualties were reported.

Nearly 830,000 people in Hubei have been affected by heavy rain that has poured down on the area since Friday, Xinhua said. In addition to the landslide, the rain has caused flash floods, and two people have been killed, Xinhua said.

The rain was likely continue for the next few days, Xinhua said. By last night, the ground-floor classrooms at the Gaoyang Town Centre Primary School were covered with a metre of mud from the landslide, Xinhua said.

Xing Xinzhou of the local Xingshan county propaganda office said today the area was now fairly stable. He said the students were away for a three-day holiday.

The rain also washed away 20,000 cubic metres of mud in Xiaohe village in Gaoyang Township, about 250 kilometres upstream from the Three Gorges Dam, Xinhua said.

Landslides in the area are occurring more frequently in recent years as the water level rises in the dam s 660-kilometre-long reservoir.
Source : PTI