Rescue efforts continue after record snowfall kills nine in Tibet : India World

Beijing - Rescuers continued efforts to reach dozens of people still trapped after record snowfall blanketed a remote area of China's Tibet region, leaving at least nine dead, state media said on Sunday. Up to 2 metres of snow lay over some parts of Lhunze county, in Tibet's Shannan district, and could take another week to melt, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Soldiers and rescue workers had evacuated 1,892 people in the Lhunzhe and Cuona counties and were trying to reach some 250 people still trapped, the agency said.

Most of those who died had either frozen to death or were hit by falling buildings brought down by the weight of snow.

Two people also went missing while they being evacuated, earlier reports said.

The regional government promised to pay subsidies to herding families which had lost yaks and sheep as a result of the snow.

"It was the heaviest snow I have ever seen and the snowstorm was totally unexpected," Gaisang Yangzom, a village official in Lhunze, told the agency.

"Luckily, we just found our yak herd, but they didn't feed on anything for three days," she was quoted as saying.