Two oil tanks washed away five days ago from a local reservoir construction site in Kaixian County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, are still missing by Thursday.

A rainstorm hit Kaixian County and the ensuing flood washed away three oil tanks from the site at about 5:00 pm Friday evening.

The three tanks, full of gasoline or diesel oil, were three meters long and 1.8 meters in diameter. At 6:00 pm Saturday, a local task force discovered one of the three in the territory of Kaixian County. The tank had been damaged and had the oil leaking out.

So far, one oil tanks has been located and the local government is planning to employ professional wrecking company to salvage it while making all-out efforts to search the other two, according to a local official.

Some leaders of the municipal and county governments had been worried the "time bombs," might flow into the Yangtze River from its tributaries. There they would run into ships and cause waterway traffic accidents.

However, estimates based on the current speed of the water of the Xiaojiang River, a local tributary of the Yangtze, in Yunyang County, showed that the oil tanks still missing would not have entered the Yangtze River.

And officials with the Kaixian county government reckoned that oil would have probably leaked out from the two tanks while flowing in the flood. The oil in the three tanks weighed only one ton in total. Such a small amount would not pollute the local rivers in Kaixian, the officials said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2004)