Workers began cleaning up a chemical spill in northeastern China on Thursday after more than 3,000 containers of chemicals were washed into a river by the worst floods to hit the country in more than a decade.
The buckets, containing a flammable chemical used to make rubber and adhesives, tumbled into the Songhua river near Jilin city in Jilin province after flood swept through a local factory, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Only about 400 buckets had been recovered till Thursday morning. No further details were immediately available.
The Songhua has had environmental problems before. In 2005 carcinogenic chemicals, including benzene, spilled into the river, forcing the northeastern city of Harbin to sever water supplies to 3.8 million people for five days. Floods this year have killed at least 928 people, left 477 missing and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, the State Flood Control and Drought Prevention office reported.
More heavy rains were expected for the southeast, southwest and northeast parts of the country through Friday.
That included about 30,000 residents trapped and left without power in their homes in Jilin after torrential rains drenched the town of Kouqian, Xinhua reported.
Flooding has hit areas all over China. Thousands of workers sandbagged riverbanks and checked reservoirs in preparation for potential floods expected to flow from the swollen Yangtze and Han rivers, an official with the Yangtze Water Resources Commission.