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Landslide hits village along China's Three Gorges
BEIJING (Reuters) - A big landslide hit a village in the area of the Three Gorges Dam on Saturday, leaving nearly 200 people stranded, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
Emergency workers were still working to rescue the 179 residents of Xiaohe Village, in Gaoyang Township of central Hubei Province, after the mudslide swept into the local school's playground and part of the village, Xinhua said.
No casualties had been reported, but Xinhua cited a local government spokesman as saying that the mud still threatened to inundate a school building and villagers' homes.
Heavy rains were forecast to continue in the next few days, potentially worsening the conditions, Xinhua said, adding that Gaoyang was the last town set to be relocated to make way for the raising of the reservoir's waters next year.
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Critics of the dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, say that pollution and geological threats are piling up as the waters rise and strain brittle slopes around the 660-km (410-mile) reservoir.
A landslide in the area late last year killed 35 people at the entrance to a railway tunnel being dug at the time. Authorities said lax supervision over construction and engineering was the direct cause of that disaster.
(Reporting by Jason Subler; Editing by Jon Boyle)
