2010-04-27 20:37

LANZHOU - The death toll from a fierce sandstorm in northwest China over the weekend has climbed to four, the civil affairs authority said Tuesday.

One more person was reported dead after raw materials belonging to a biochemical company burst into flames presumably caused by static created by the sandstorm, according to the statement issued by civil affairs department of Gansu Province.

Zhangye Shengyuan Biochemical Corporation, based in Zhangye City of Gansu Province, mainly uses plant waste to make biochemical products such as biomass fuel, according to its official website.

The 60-year-old dead woman was from Shiqiao Village, Xiaoman Town of Ganzhou District, Zhanye City.

Gansu was hit by the strongest sandstorm in nine years on Saturday and Sunday, with wind speeds at more than 100 km per hour and the visibility in some reduced to 50 meters, and in Minqin and Jiuquan the visibility was zero.

Minqin reported 13 fires caused by the sandstorm, leaving five people injured and 460 others evacuated, the statement said.

All the fires had been put out and most of the evacuated people had returned home, a spokesman of Gansu civil affairs department said late Tuesday.

Preliminary statistics show that the sandstorm affected 1.32 million people in 19 counties in Gansu Province, and damaged 206,800 hectares of crops, of which 33,900 hectares were totally destroyed.

The sandstorm also flattened 547 houses and damaged 822 others in the province, it said.

The violent sandstorm left three dead and one missing last Saturday in China's far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where crops, vegetable greenhouses and vineyards were seriously damaged.

Fourteen million yuan ($2 million) had been allocated to the gale-stricken area in Xinjiang for agricultural recovery and the electricity had restored in worst-hit Turpan Area, according to the government of Xinjiang.