Floods, mudslides kill 2 in southwest China, destroy homes, bridge

Overnight in Kangding, a mountainous region in Sichuan’s western highlands, mudslides took down some homes in a village, killing two, while 12 were missing, national broadcaster CCTV reported.

A bridge connecting two tunnels on an expressway linking Kangding and Ya’an collapsed on Saturday morning, causing three vehicles to fall off the highway. One of the six passengers has been rescued, CCTV said. It did not specify whether they had fallen off the bridge.

China has been roiled by record rain and heatwaves this summer as scientists warn of more extreme weather fuelled by climate change. In the past decade, Sichuan and Hunan in the south have suffered the most damage from storms and floods, reporting cumulative economic losses of more than 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) each, according to some estimates.