BEIJING – At least 24 people died when part of a highway collapsed in southern China’s Guangdong province due to heavy rain on May 1, state media reported.

State broadcaster CCTV said a stretch of road nearly 18m long between Meizhou city and Dabu county had caved in at around 2.10am, trapping 20 vehicles.

As at 3pm, “24 people have been confirmed dead, and 30 are receiving all-out emergency care in hospital”, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

CCTV said the lives of those hospitalised were “not currently at risk” but did not specify their injuries.

An aerial photograph published by CCTV showed wrecked vehicles lying in a deep, muddy pit where the highway once ran. Dozens of emergency vehicles and cranes congregated along the intact section of the road, which bisects a steep, wooded slope.

Other clips, apparently filmed before dawn, showed flames emanating from the pit.

“You can’t go any farther,” a man is heard saying in one video, adding that parts of the road had given way.

AFP was not immediately able to verify the videos.

CCTV said the collapse was a “natural geological disaster... (that occurred) under the impact of persistent heavy rain”.

Around 500 people from departments handling public security, emergency response, firefighting and mining rescue were deployed to help with the rescue operation, CCTV reported.

The local authorities said in a notice that part of the S12 highway was closed in both directions, and ordered drivers to take detours.

The incident is the latest in a string of deadly disasters to hit Guangdong in recent weeks.

The province – a densely populated industrial powerhouse – has been lashed by heavy rain that has caused fatal floods in some areas.

A swirling tornado killed five people when it ripped through the mega city of Guangzhou last week.

Parts of the province have not seen such severe flooding so early in the year since records began in 1954, according to state media.

Much of China’s massive highway network sprawls across rough terrain and extreme climates.

Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more frequent and intense. China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to reduce emissions to net zero by 2060.

Road accidents are also common in the country due to a lack of strict safety controls.

In March, 14 people were killed and 37 others injured after a bus crashed inside an expressway tunnel in northern Shanxi province.

Sixteen died in a vehicle pile-up in central Hunan province in February 2023, a month after 19 perished in an accident in eastern Jiangxi province. AFP