BEIJING, Feb 2 (Reuter) - Blizzards have killed 42 people in a Tibetan region of China's southwestern Sichuan province in one of the worst snowstorms reported in China for several years, state radio said on Friday.

"The party central committee and State Council (cabinet) took seriously the snow disaster in Serxu County, Garze Prefecture, Sichuan," state radio said in its evening broadcast. "The latest report from the disaster area says 42 people have died as a result of the snow disaster."

It was the highest death toll reported from snowstorms in China for several years.

A report on Wednesday said the blizzards had killed at least 21 people in the Tibetan-populated county and left 147 physically disabled by cold. More than 10,000 had suffered frostbite.

The blizzards killed at least 100,000 head of livestock and cut all transport and power in the region. State radio said local officials had launched a rescue effort to try to bring relief to residents of the remote plateau.

State television showed footage of rescue workers trudging through huge snow drifts to bring help to herdsmen in far western Qinghai province who had been stranded by heavy snowfalls.

It also showed herds of sheep that had frozen to death in the bitterly cold temperatures.

Further footage showed air force planes dropping tonnes of food and medicine to the storm-ravaged areas in the Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, where temperatures hit minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit).