Rescuers are evacuating disaster-affected residents and still searching the missing, while providing relief to them, after heavy rain-incurred flash flooding and mud-rock flows hit a village in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday.

The disaster occurred at around 02:30 on Saturday in Xinhua Village, Hanyuan County under Ya'an City, damaging over 40 houses and affecting 1,524 residents. As of 16:00 on Sunday, 10 bodies had been found, while 29 people remained missing.

Six groups of the village were the worst hit, with debris and rubble piling up in length of several hundred meters.

Ya'an City has promptly mobilized professional rescue teams to help the affected village.

"The disaster site is in Xinhua Village of Malie Town. Mainly in the direction of northeast, Group 3 to Group 8 of the village were the worst hit. And Group 7 and Group 8 lead other groups in the number of evacuees. Our main task is to evacuate the affected villagers in Group 7 and Group 8, and because of the mud-rock flows, the roads have been severely damaged," said Chen Xiaowen, an officer of the Ya'an Brigade of Sichuan Provincial Corps of the Armed Police Force.

The Hanyuan People's Hospital, in collaboration with the 120 Emergency Medical Center, tries to guarantee the timely medical treatment for the injured. So far the hospital has admitted 12 affected villagers for treatment.

"As the road traffic was cut off, we were unable to go over there. So, our team was divided into two groups: one acted as an advance team, conducting on-site search and rescue at all shelter settlements, while the other remained at the cutoff point. As soon as the patients were transferred there, we immediately conducted triage and group them by their injuries, ensuring that all the patients receive full and timely medical treatment," said Wu Yi, deputy head of Ya'an Emergency Medical Team.

As of 16:00 on Sunday, 412 people in the hardest-hit areas of the village had been evacuated to safety. At present, all the roads leading to the disaster-affected areas have resumed operation.

According to a flood report issued by the Ministry of Water Resources, as of 08:00 on Sunday, 55 rivers in 12 provincial-level regions, including Sichuan, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, and Heilongjiang were at or above the warning water level.

Among them, the Anning River, a tributary of the Yalong River in Sichuan, experienced the largest flood on record since measurements began in 2001.

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