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Landslide-disrupted railway resumes operation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-01 14:25

NANNING -- The landslide-disrupted Litang-Zhanjiang section of northbound railway line as far as Chongqing was reopened early Tuesday after 1,000 staff worked around the clock, according to sources with the railway bureau of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The southbound line of the railway, which runs through the Guangxi region to Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province, was still under repair, and it is not known when the line will reopen to traffic.

Downpours hit the railway twice on Monday, triggering landslides which delayed repair work. In total 2,700 cubic meters of soil had fallen on to the line.

In the early hours of Monday seven people were slightly injured when a passenger train was derailed by the landslide.

Four of the injured had been discharged from hospital as of 7 p.m. Monday, said Shao Liping, head of the railway administration of Nanning.

"The train was carrying 1,118 passengers. The other passengers have all taken other trains to the southwestern municipality of Chongqing except for the three still in hospital," said Shao.

The accident occurred at 2:20 a.m. when the locomotive and six carriages were derailed from the No.1322 passenger train.