Death toll rises to 21 in mountain marathon found in China’s Gansu
The death toll has increased to 21 after extreme weather hit participants in a 100-km cross-country mountain marathon race in Baiyin City, northwest China’s Gansu Province, the neighborhood rescue headquarters said on Sunday.
Another 151 individuals were confirmed safe, which eight with small injuries were treated found in a healthcare facility and in stable state.
It was a public basic safety incident the effect of a sudden change found in environment, and the province had setup a special crew to further investigate the reason for the incident, said Zhang Xuchen, mayor of Baiyin City, at a good press briefing on Sunday morning.
The marathon race happened on Saturday morning in the Yellow River Stone Forest tourist blog in Jingtai County, Baiyin City.
According to the rescue headquarters, in about 1 p.m. Saturday, hails, freezing rain and gales hit the region of the race’s high-altitude stage between 20 to 31 km.
Individuals suffered from physical distress and lack of temperature as a result of sudden drop in atmosphere temperature.
Some of the individuals went missing and the competition was halted.
Local governments initiated a crisis response and organized over 1,200 well-equipped rescuers to find the missing people.
The temperature dropped again during the night as a result of area’s complex terrain and topography, building the search and rescue more challenging.
A complete of 172 persons took part in the mountain marathon race.
