By Xinhua
Beijing : China has deployed more than one million troops and militia to clear huge amounts of snow that has blockaded roads in the country’s south, crippling normal life, a military source said.
About 1.07 million militia and army reservists were participating in the relief effort, the People’s Liberation Army’s emergency response group said. The PLA has 2.3 million troops.
More than 100 aircraft and helicopters remained on standby, air force sources said.
Two AN-26 transport planes flew to the southwestern province of Guizhou early Saturday, carrying 5.5 tonnes of relief material and equipment including food, medicines and quilts.
Military vehicles such as field kitchen trucks and armoured cars played an important role in de-icing and rescue missions.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, about 1,500 soldiers helped maintain order at the train station where thousands have massed in a desperate bid to go home ahead of the Chinese Lunar holiday.
Soldiers of the Hubei military area in central China helped the police to restore a 28-km section of the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, the country’s key north-south trunk road that had been closed by dangerous icing.
The efforts helped more than 6,000 vehicles and 12,000 stranded riders continue their journeys.
The snow, the heaviest in decades in many places, has been falling in China’s eastern, central and southern regions for more than a fortnight. It has caused deaths, structural collapses, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop destruction.