By IANS,
Beijing : A total of 97 people died while 13 went missing in geological disasters that occurred in China in the first half of this year, a government report said.
The ministry of land and resources said these disasters – 10,710 in total – also incurred an economic loss of around 939 million yuan (approximately $145 million), Xinhua reported.
The number of geological disasters, including landslides, mud-rock flows and land cave-ins, dropped during the first six months compared to the the same period last year, said Wang Min, vice minister of land and resources.
The ministry, however, warned that the July-September period is the peak time for such disasters, and droughts endured by many parts of the country make mud-rock flows and landslides more likely to happen.
From 2006 to 2010, around 214,000 geological disasters occurred in China, which left 6,293 people dead or missing.