The story appears on

Page A3

October 11, 2010

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Nation

Family swept away by huge tides

FOUR people, including two children, are missing after tides surging up over a levee swept them into a river in an east China city yesterday.

Eight people were walking along the levee on the Qiantang River when tides suddenly surged and swept six of them away around 2pm in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province.

Two were rescued by fishing boat crews while four others - a five-year-old girl, a 10-year-old girl, and their parents - were missing, officials said.

About 400 police and 120 rescuers were searching the waters along the levee for the missing family.

The authorities mobilized 19 boats to join the rescue and turned on all 12 surveillance cameras along the levee, local officials said yesterday.

The levee on the Qiantang River mouth in Hangzhou is well known for its huge tides, which have reached as high as 3.5 meters in the past.

Although dangerous, the phenomenon always attracts interested onlookers.

In 2007, 11 people died after they were swept away when watching the tidal flow, while the worst tidal accident took place in 1993, claiming 19 lives and leaving another 40 people missing.

But authorities in Hangzhou said that yesterday's tragedy occurred at a part of the levee that is not a traditional sightseeing spot and it remains unknown if the victims, all local people, had come specifically to watch the tides.





 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend