The rainstorm suddenly hit Baoji city proper at around 5 p.m. Sunday, causing a mud-slide near Bei'an Village in Jintai District.

The mud-slide destroyed a two-story building, burying 13 migrant workers who lived there.

Two workers died on the spot, five others died in a local hospital and the remaining six were still being treated in hospital.

The rainstorm also flattened a wall of a workshop of the No. 1 Transportation Company of Baoji City. Two workers escaped and four others died after being buried under the debris of the collapsed wall.

Baoji city government officials immediately rushed to the accident site to direct rescue efforts and more than 500 soldiers, public security officers and armed police were sent to search for the trapped workers.

Sunday afternoon's rainstorm also hit Huxian and Zhouzhi counties of Shaanxi Province, flattening some residential houses and damaging some farmland. But no casualties were reported.

(China Daily August 25, 2003)