After days of heavy rain, a nearly 60-foot-long highway collapsed before dawn on Wednesday in rural southeastern China, killing 36 people and injuring 30 others.
Photos released after the incident appeared to show a landslide starting under two lanes of the highway on a hillside. A wide trail of brown mud ran down the hillside, between bright green leaves, leaving a gaping gap in the highway.
At the base of the hill below the cave, vehicles were parked in a jumbled mess, blackened and still smoking from the overnight fire that drew a large number of fire trucks to the area.
Many survivors were seriously injured, with the driver and passengers suffering severe fractures and internal damage, state news media said.
A witness told state news media that he heard a loud bang and briefly struggled to maintain control of the car. Then he realized the road was collapsing behind him and the car following him had disappeared into the void.
Highway traffic across China is particularly busy as the five-day National Day holiday begins on Wednesday. The collapsed expressway is located in the eastern suburbs of Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. Many of the victims were on their way to neighboring Fujian province as the holidays began.
More than 500 rescue workers from police, emergency and other departments were dispatched. Local traffic police blocked traffic in both directions on the highway.
Most areas in the northeastern corner of Guangdong Province, where the accident occurred, have rugged terrain and are mostly hilly. Another section of the same highway was briefly closed last April due to a landslide that covered the road with mud. No deaths or injuries were reported at the time.
In the past two months, moist and warm air from the South China Sea has continued to gather toward the southwest, resulting in long-term severe weather in South China. The Central Meteorological Observatory issued the highest level orange warning for severe weather seven times in a row in April.
A rare tornado and hail ripped through the southern Chinese production hub of Guangzhou on Saturday, killing five people and injuring 33 others.
