Rainstorm runoff in a mountainous part of northwest China's Qinghai Province destroyed a section of a national highway and a key telecom cable, disrupting traffic and wireless communications to an ethnic prefecture, a source with the local government confirmed on Monday.

The runoff hit on Sunday night, stranding eight people and two oil trucks on the No. 109 national highway in Haixi Mongolia and Tibet Autonomous Prefecture.

The county government of Wulan in the prefecture has reported house collapses and has evacuated some residents.

Telecom communications were restored on Monday, but the section of the highway which links Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu, and Xining (Qinghai's capital) remained closed for repair.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2008)