Rescuers in Tibet have found eight more bodies, increasing the death toll to 28 following an avalanche that buried multiple automobiles in deep snow and ice on a section of road connected to a highway tunnel.Chinese state media reported late on Friday that rescue workers had uncovered the 8 bodies, digging by hand and with mechanical diggers to locate the cars buried in the avalanche, which took place at about 8pm (12:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
It had hit a roadway and highway tunnel connecting the city of Nyingchi in Tibets southwest with removed Medog county.Earlier on Friday, 20 individuals had been confirmed killed and 8 were still missing out on, according to the state-run Global Times news outlet.
Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that 53 people were saved after the avalanche, with five of the survivors seriously injured.Authorities said the search and rescue operation has actually been mainly finished, the news outlet reported.The avalanche struck an area of road in between Pai town in Mainling county and the Doxong La tunnel in Medog county.A regional villager informed the Global Times that most of those travelling on the road at the time of the accident were Tibetan individuals returning to their home towns for the Lunar New Year, which begins on Sunday.Rescue workers reported that lorries were squashed under the weight of tonnes of snow and ice that collapsed at the mouth of the tunnel, trapping motorists in their vehicles.Nyingchi lies at an elevation of about 3,040 metres (9,974 feet) and is about 5 hours drive from the regional capital, Lhasa, along a highway opened in 2018.
Night-time temperature levels throughout winter regularly drop to well listed below freezing.Chinese authorities say some 1,000 rescue employees and dozens of emergency situation vehicles have actually been released to the site of the disaster.
The snow was so deep it was as high as to individualss waist, and the road is very slippery.
Numerous rescue employees stumbled all the method there, a local health centre employee said, according to the Global Times.Avalanches are not unusual in the Himalayas.
Last October, a minimum of 26 individuals died when a mountaineering expedition was caught in an avalanche on Mount Draupadi ka Danda-II in Indias northern state of Uttarakhand.Source - Al Jazeera- With input from companies