Services resume on rain-hit S. China railway

Nanning (China), May 25 (Xinhua-ANI): Trains on a major railway in south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region began running again late on Friday afternoon, after they were disrupted by torrential rain earlier in the day.

Services resumed at about 5 p.m., rainstorms having damaged a 200-meter-long roadbed at about 3 a.m. near the city of Baise, halting seven passenger trains on the line linking regional capital Nanning with Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, a spokesman for local railway authorities said.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at stations along the line during the disruption.

More than 2,000 workers were mobilized to repair the road, said Zhang Qianli, chief of Nanning city's railway bureau.

Meanwhile, rainstorms have destroyed houses, cut off road traffic and drinking water supplies, inundated crops and damaged power, telecommunications and irrigation facilities in Baise's Lingyun county.

More than 77,000 rural residents have been affected, a county government spokesman said.

More torrential rain will hit the county over the next few days and complicate disaster relief operations, according to local meteorological authorities. (Xinhua-ANI)