Traffic on a section of highway that was blocked due to a heavy blizzard resumed Wednesday morning in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

At about 11 a.m., winds in the Maytas section of Provincial Highway 201 eased slightly, and traffic resumed after being stopped for 18 hours, said Li Jie, vice director of the Emin county branch of the Tacheng highway authority.

Since noon on Tuesday, fifty-two passengers in 15 vehicles had been stranded on the Maytas section of the highway, as a snowstorm reduced visibility to zero.

Local road traffic authorities dispatched rescuers and snow removal machines to the snow-blocked road section. By about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, all the trapped passengers had been brought to safety following a five-hour rescue mission.

The Maytas section of Highway 201 lies in a particularly wind-prone part of Xinjiang. In March 2011, 833 passengers were trapped on the road for 17 hours after gusty winds turned into a blizzard.