December 03, 2007	Monday	Ziqa'ad 22, 1428

BEIJING: A 100-metre stretch of the Yangtze river’s bank collapsed in eastern China on Saturday, sending some 10 warehouses and several cranes into the river. The landslide happened near the city of Wuhu in Anhui province, which lies roughly 100kms southwest of Nanjing, capital of the relatively prosperous province of Jiangsu, on the eastern seaboard.

Wuhu lies hundreds of kilometres downstream from the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, which officials have said would help control flooding in downstream areas.

Xinhua cited a local official as saying the collapse could have been caused by a vortex of water. It said others believed construction at a nearby shipyard might have loosened the foundations of a dyke and caused the collapse.

No casualties were reported, but an elderly couple was saved from a barge before it crashed into the water.—Reuters