Zado, Qinghai, 3rd February - Xinhua: Blizzard has frozen two people, including a child, to death in the Zado county in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

In the four heaviest-hit townships in Zado and Zhido counties in Qinghai, about 18,000 people have been endangered by the blizzard which has lasted since October, said an official responsible for providing relief to the disaster area. Temperatures have dropped to minus 40 degrees centigrade or lower, 78 per cent of livestock have been frozen to death, and the number of people suffering from frostbite has risen dramatically in the four townships.

An official with the Moyun Township said that by 21st January 90 per cent of the livestock in Moyun had died, all of Moyun's 3,272 residents had almost used up their food supplies, and they had run out of their fuels.

Rescue efforts have been hampered because the roads to the four townships have been covered with deep snow. The prefecture government has sent 10 bulldozers to open those roads to the four townships.