• Rescue workers are digging with mechanical diggers in deep snow to locate buried vehicles.
• Eight people are still missing and 20 people are said to have died as of Friday.
• The majority of those were Tibetans returning to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year.

Tibet: Following an avalanche in Tibet that buried several vehicles in deep snow and ice on a section of road connected to a highway tunnel, twenty people have been confirmed dead and eight are still missing.

On Friday, images on Chinese state media showed rescue workers digging with mechanical diggers in deep snow to locate buried vehicles when the avalanche hit the road and highway tunnel connecting the city of Nyingchi in Tibet’s southwest with outlying Medog county.

According to the state-run news source, eight people are still missing and 20 people are said to have died as of Friday. Since the avalanche that occurred at around 8 p.m. (12:00 GMT) on Tuesday on a section of road between Pai village in Mailing county and the Doxong La tunnel in Medog county, 53 more people have been saved., It stated that five of the survivors had severe injuries.

Tibetans were returning to their hometowns

According to a local villager, the majority of those on the road at the time of the accident were Tibetans returning to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year, which begins on Sunday.

Vehicles were crushed under the weight of tonnes of snow and ice that collapsed at the mouth of the tunnel, trapping drivers inside their vehicles, according to rescue workers.

Nyingchi is about five hours’ drive from the regional capital, Lhasa, and is located at an elevation of about 3,040 meters (9,974 feet). During the winter, nighttime temperatures routinely fall well below freezing.

According to Chinese authorities, 1,000 rescue workers and dozens of emergency vehicles have been dispatched to the disaster site.

“The snow was so deep it was as high as to people’s waist, and the road is very slippery. “Many rescue workers stumbled all the way there,” said a local healthcare worker.

In the Himalayas, avalanches are common. Last October, a mountaineering expedition was caught in an avalanche on Mount Draupadi ka Danda-II in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, killing at least 26 people.

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