Fifteen workers conducting exploration fieldwork were killed in a heavy snowstorm on Friday afternoon in Haixi Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province, according to the prefecture's safe production supervision administration.

The 15 victims were workers with the Qinghai Oil Exploration No. 217 Team, which belongs to the Eastern Oil Exploration Company, part of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

On May 13, more than 70 oil explorers divided into eight groups were operating in the field in the Mangya Township of the prefecture when they were hit by a heavy snowstorm and sandstorm simultaneously.

The exploration team immediately ordered a withdrawal of the workers. However, not all of the workers could be mobilized due to the wide area of operations and low visibility.

Rescuers found six dead workers at various operation sites at 2:00 AM on May 14. By press time, a total of 15 workers were found dead and 13 others injured in the snowstorm, which was described as "freak" because it occurs only once every 100 years.

Rescue operations and investigations continue.

In related news, continuous torrential downpours in the northern and central parts of east China's Fujian Province that lasted from May 13 to 15 killed nine people. Eight others are missing, according to the provincial flood and drought prevention and control headquarters.

Heavy rainstorms with maximum rainfall of 124 mm hit 20 counties, districts and cities in the province from Friday to Sunday, affecting a total population of over 420,000.

Nine people were killed, 740 others were wounded and eight have been reported missing in the disaster. Some 1,563 hectares of farmland and 3,240 houses were also destroyed.

The provincial government and various local authorities are organizing rescue and disaster-relief work.

Meanwhile, nine people were reported missing when a fishing boat capsized early Monday morning off Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province. This is according to the Ministry of Communications' Beihai Rescue Bureau.

The fishing boat capsized at 1:00 AM on Monday in north China's Bohai Sea area at around 122 degrees east longitude and 38 degrees north latitude. All nine fishermen on board are missing.

Preliminary investigations showed that the vessel belonged to Zhuanghe City (county level) under the jurisdiction of Dalian, whose last contact with the boat owner was at about 1:40 AM on Monday when he sent a distress signal.

In Taiwan, floods caused by torrential rains have left five people dead and another four are missing.

The torrential rains started last Thursday.

According to a casualty report released on Monday, the body of a Taipei County man, identified as Chiang Chang-yu, 38, was found on Sunday night after he was reported missing.

According to his family, he had gone out to move his car from a parking lot that was on a flood channel to a safer place but never returned.

In Nantou County, dozens of firefighters and members of private rescue teams are searching for three employees of a bicycle parts company who went missing in the mountains last Thursday.

In Hsinchu County, local fire departments mobilized over 50 personnel on Monday to search for a missing construction worker who failed to escape a flood that deluged a bridge he was working on last Thursday.

Also in Taiwan, a fire in Taichung City on Monday morning left six people injured, according to a Television Hong Kong report.
  
(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2005)