Traffic on a highway linking Tibet with the neighboring province of Sichuan resumed on Wednesday after more than 30 hours of work to repair damage from a landslide.

Nearly 100 vehicles had been stranded since Tuesday, when more than 20,000 cubic meters of dirt and rocks fell from a roadside mountain, covering a 100-meter section in Bomi County, eastern Tibet, of the Sichuan-Tibet highway, according to Chen Jun, chief of an armed police detachment in charge of the road repair.

Vehicles were slowly passing through the section and repair staff were still trying to clear up the road to allow more traffic.

It was the second time this month that a major mudflow halted traffic on the highway. The road had only reopened on Sept. 4 after 94 hours of repairs from an earlier mudflow.

Since June, the start of the rainy season in eastern Tibet, constant rain has hit the region and caused nearly 100 minor landslides and road collapses.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2008)