One dead in E China landslide

NANCHANG - One woman has died and another four are missing after a rain-triggered landslide hit a tree farm in east China's Jiangxi Province Thursday morning, local authorities said.

Five female workers were buried in the landslide, which happened between 3 and 4 a.m. at the Wanling tree farm in Da'e township of Xinfeng County, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said in a statement.

As of 2 p.m., rescuers had found one body and were still searching for the missing four, the statement said.

The disaster disrupted traffic and telecommunications in the area, and local people were unable to report the disaster until 8 a.m.

Most parts of Jiangxi have been battered by heavy rainstorms since Tuesday, while Da'e received 106.5 mm of rain from 5 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday, it said.

Heavy rain also hit neighboring Hunan Province, leaving two injured and forcing 4,700 residents to relocate in the city of Yongzhou, according to a spokesman with the provincial floods control and drought relief headquarters.

Precipitation reached 128 mm in an hour in the city's Jiangyong County, the highest volume in the area since 1954, the spokesman said.

Due to the rain, trains along the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway were delayed. All trains had to slow down at Shaoguan and other sections of the province from 9:20 a.m. Thursday, and normal operations did not resume until 2 p.m., said a manager with the Guangzhou Railway Group.