Qiantang River tidal waves have killed eight people and left
three others missing in this capital city of Zhejiang Province, government officials said
on Friday.
A wave hit a levee at the mouth of the river at 4:31 PM on
Thursday, sweeping away 33 people, most of them tourists.
Twenty-two people were rescued in an overnight search operation,
which is still going on, according to a task force of the city's
Jianggan District government.
Eight bodies, five men and three women, have been recovered, Xie
Liewei, deputy director of the Jianggan District government,
said.
"Search operations will continue," Xie said. "We will also
launch an education campaign to boost public awareness of
safety."
Among the dead were a 10-year-old girl and a 21-year-old
university student.
Those who were washed away were either swimming or walking along
the levee at the Qibao section of the Qiantang River, about 20 km
southeast of Hangzhou, according to the task force.
"The possibility of finding anyone alive is very, very slim," a
marine police officer said.
"The three missing people, I fear are dead," the police officer
said. He declined to give his name.
The trumpet-shaped mouth of the Qiantang River, experts say,
helps generate extraordinary tidal waves, which can reach a height
of 3.5 m.
The spectacular tidal waves have attracted people from across
the country since ancient times, and there is an annual
Tide-Watching Festival in late summer.
"The natural wonder is sometimes a curse as every year people
are killed," Zhang Jinyuan, a villager in Qibao, said.
More than 70 people have lost their lives to Qiangtang River
tidal waves since 1998 and many more have been injured, Zheng
Yiren, an official with the Hangzhou marine public security bureau,
said.
The worst accident occurred on October 3, 1993, when 19 people
were killed and 27 injured, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Search operation was briefly interrupted on Friday due to bad
weather.
(China Daily August 4, 2007)