Beijing - Rescuers continued efforts to reach dozens of people still trapped after record snowfall blanketed a remote area of China's Tibet region, leaving at least nine dead, state media said on Sunday. Up to 2 metres of snow lay over some parts of Lhunze county, in Tibet's Shannan district, and could take another week to melt, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Soldiers and rescue workers had evacuated 1,892 people in the Lhunzhe and Cuona counties and were trying to reach some 250 people still trapped, the agency said.
Most of those who died had either frozen to death or were hit by falling buildings brought down by the weight of snow.
Two people also went missing while they being evacuated, earlier reports said.
The regional government promised to pay subsidies to herding families which had lost yaks and sheep as a result of the snow.
"It was the heaviest snow I have ever seen and the snowstorm was totally unexpected," Gaisang Yangzom, a village official in Lhunze, told the agency.
"Luckily, we just found our yak herd, but they didn't feed on anything for three days," she was quoted as saying.
Lhunze county only had enough fodder for about 12 days and needed another 2,550 tons of fodder for the animals and 325 tons of fuel for heating residents' homes, the agency said.
The China Daily newspaper said at least 144,400 yaks and sheep had died in what was reportedly the worst snowstorm on record in Tibet, with 36 hours of continuous snowfall last Sunday and Monday.
Telecommunications and roads were badly affected in parts of Shannan, while the heavy snow also affected mountainous areas of the neighbouring provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, it said.
Those rescued from remote areas were sleeping in schools or government buildings, and officials had allocated tents, clothing and other emergency supplies, the newspaper said.
Cuona county had been cut off for three days but the main road linking it to Lhunze reopened on Thursday after road workers and paramilitary police battled for 63 hours to clear snow, it said.
