At least 4,000 villagers have been evacuated after mountain torrents and mudflows ravaged Luding County of southwest China's Sichuan Province on Thursday.

By Friday night, rescuers had relocated 2,812 villagers marooned by flood water and evacuated 1,404 students from 12 schools, said officials with the local publicity department.

The disaster has left four people dead, five missing and 230 injured, affecting the life of 10,516 locals. It also destroyed 5,109 houses across the county.

Evacuees from ramshackle houses were told to stay with relatives or to stay at local schools and other public facilities arranged by the local government.

In Chuni village, one of the worst affected villages in the county, mountain torrents and subsequent mudflows destroyed roads, bridges and drowned cropland. The village school, located in a high risk slope, has been suspended since Thursday.

"My corn field was drowned, but I've still got 20 pigs and one buffalo at home," said Wang Fuxiu, a peasant woman who is arranged shelter in a school building. "I have to feed them during the day and sleep here at night." 

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2005)