55 rescued from snow-hit Tibet highway

Herald Globe (IANS) Thursday 9th February, 2012

A total of 55 people stranded on China's Xinjiang-Tibet highway since Tuesday following heavy snowfall have been rescued, a rescue team official said Thursday.

The highway is a major transport route linking Tibet to other parts of the country, Xinhua reported.

According to Zheng Jinshui, traffic on the highway that links the Tibet and Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regions, resumed Thursday following a rescue operation conducted by armed police, said Zheng, a police official in charge of the rescue operation.

The rescuers, undeterred by continuous snowfall and temperature as low as -30 degrees Celsius, cleared snow from a 95-km stretch of the highway in Ngari prefecture, Zheng added.