BEIJING (Reuters) – At least 20 people were killed when extremely cold weather struck during an ultramarathon on Saturday in China’s northwestern Gansu province, local government officials said on Sunday.
Eight were lightly injured as of 8 a.m. Beijing time (0000 GMT) on Sunday, officials from Baiyin city told a news briefing.
The 100-km (62-mile) cross-country race was held on Saturday morning in the Yellow River Stone Forest, a scenic tourist site in Jingtai county under the jurisdiction of Baiyin.
Around noon on Saturday, hail, freezing rain and gales hit a mountainous section of the race, with temperatures falling sharply, the officials said.
A total of 172 people took part in the race. As of Sunday, 151 participants had been confirmed safe, including the injured, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
More than 700 rescuers have been deployed by the local government.
One runner is missing, officials said.
Temperatures dropped again during the night due to the area’s complex terrain and topography, making the search and rescue more difficult, Xinhua said.
A landslide following the severe weather also hampered the rescue work, the Baiyin officials said.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Lusha Zhang; Editing by William Mallard)
