BEIJING, June 11: Sixty-four people were confirmed dead on Saturday after devastating floods swamped a school in northeastern China, with many young children said to be among the 62 pupils known to have drowned. Flash floods caused by a mountain torrent struck the primary school in Shalan town, Heilongjiang province on Friday and sent nearby residents fleeing in panic.

“Because the floods were huge, many younger pupils in primary one and two were inundated and perished,” China Central Television reported in the evening news.

Another 17 pupils, a teacher from the school and six other villagers were hospitalized for emergency treatment, Xinhua said.

Other details were slow to emerge from the remote, mountainous area with no official figures being given for the number of people still missing.

Heilongjiang’s deputy governor and other senior officials were directing rescue operations at the scene in Ningan municipality, about 450 kilometres from the provincial capital Harbin.

The primary school had a total of 352 students aged six to 14 and 31 teachers, state media said.

Rains and floods in the region wrecked 1,333 hectares of farmlands and flattened 55 houses throughout many villages in Ningan, another Xinhua report said.

A rsecue team of 1,400 people, including hundreds of government officials were working in the disaster-hit areas to rescue survivors and find the missing, and to disinfect areas to prevent disease outbreaks.

Shelters have been set up to accommodate people made homeless in the floods. —AFP