Rubble-strewn floodwaters tore through a remote corner of northwestern China on Sunday, smashing buildings, overturning cars and killing at least 127 people. Half of an entire town was under water and an estimated 2,000 more people were missing in the latest deluge in a summer that has seen China's worst seasonal flooding in a decade, AP reported. Terrified residents fled to high ground or upper stories of apartment buildings after a debris-blocked river overflowed during the night in the northwestern province of Gansu. Worst hit was the county seat of Zhouqu in the province's Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with the official Xinhua News Agency reporting half of it under water. Many houses collapsed and streets were covered with a yard (meter) of mud and water after the early morning landslides, it said. The landslides struck after heavy rains lashed the country late Saturday and the Bailong River overflowed, Xinhua quoted the head of Zhouqu county, Diemujiangteng, as saying. "Now the sludge (thick mud) has became the biggest problem to rescue operations. It's too thick to walk or drive through," he was quoted as saying.
