国内英语新闻:At least 127 dead, 1,300 missing in northwest China mudslides

The Bailong River, which runs through the county seat, overflowed after being blocked by landslide and a large body of slow-moving water had engulfed Chengguan Township.

More than 300 homes in Yueyuan Village had been buried, with the number of casualties still unknown, Mao said.

The mud-rock flow has leveled an area of about 5 km long and 500 meters wide in the county seat with about 1.8 million cubic meters of mud and rocks. More than 20,000 people have been affected.

Sludge as deep as two meters spread across some major roads in the county, driving many trapped residents atop buildings.

"Torrential rains began to fall at around 10 p.m. Saturday. Then there were mudslides and many people became trapped. Now sludge has become the biggest hinderance to rescue operations. It's too thick to walk or drive through," said Diemujiangteng, head of the county.

"Since excavators can't reach the site, we can only use spades and our hands to rescue the buried," said He Youxin, an officer with the Gannan branch of the Gansu Headquarters of Chinese People's Armed Police Force.

His rescue team has saved 23 people and recovered 15 bodies. But, "It's very hard to locate the people washed away by floods. It's hard to say what their chances of survival are," he said.

The PLA (People's Liberation Army) Lanzhou Military Area Command has sent 2,560 soldiers to the landsldie-hit region. The Ministry of Public Security has sent 1,780 policemen and fire fighters with life detectors and rubber rafts to join in the rescue operation.

Hundreds of medical staff also have bee sent to the region.

Small mud-rock flows were still occurring in the county, according to a report from a 10-strong rescue team sent by the fire department of Sichuan police department.

Rescue operations, however, could be further complicated as rains were forecast for the coming five days.

Two thirds of county's power was out and some communications links were also down because of electricity cuts.

By 4:14 p.m., power supplies in some parts of Zhouqu, including the temporary settlement center, hospitals, two middle schools and communications base stations, were resumed.

The roads in the outskirts of Zhouqu County had reopened after they were blocked by the mudslides.

By 3 p.m., the provincial civil affairs department has sent 3,900 tents, about 40,000 boxes of instant noodles and 31,300 boxes of bottled drinking water to the county.

The county badly needs 400 tonnes of drinking water and 20 tonnes of instant food per day, said a spokesman with the prefecture's government.

It would need 10,000 tonnes of water and 500 tonnes of instant food in the following 25 days, after which life was expected to return to normal, said the spokesman.

The Ministry of Finance announced Sunday said it had allocated 500 million yuan (73 million U.S. dollars) in emergency aid to fund rescue efforts.