XINING, Aug. 19 -- According to the Weixin official account of the Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) Force, on the early morning of August 18, the Datong County under the jurisdiction of Xining, the capital city of northwest China’s Qinghai Province, was struck by mountain torrents and mudslides due to continuous heavy rain, with local residents besieged by the floods. Upon receiving flood information report, the PAP Qinghai Corps activated the emergency response mechanism to make arrangements for flood-fighting and emergency rescues.
The PAP suadron stationed in the Datong County dispatched 19 armed policemen and 2 vehicles to join the disaster rescue at the first time. At 13:00 on August 18, 200 service members as the reinforcements sent by the PAP Xining contingent arrived at the mudslide stricken area to carry out victims search and rescue and dredging operations.
As of 18:40 on August 18, the armed policemen had rescued and transferred more than 50 victims, and assisted in the excavation of 4 remains.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, 18 people had been found dead in the disarster, while 20 missing persons had been rescued, and another 13 people are still missing. Qinghai Province has activated the Level-I emergency response to tackle the disaster, and the PAP task forces are still engaged in rescue operations.
