Twenty-one people running a mountain ultramarathon have died in north-western China after hail, freezing rain and gale-force winds hit the high-altitude track.
After an all-night rescue operation in freezing temperatures involving more than 700 personnel, rescuers confirmed that 151 people were safe out of a total of 172 participants.
Twenty-one had died, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, which said the runners suffered from physical discomfort and the sudden drop in temperature.
The runners were racing on an extremely narrow mountain path at an altitude reaching 2,000-3,000 metres during the 100-kilometre (62-mile) race at the Yellow River Stone Forest tourist site in Baiyin city, Gansu Province.
One of those who died was a well-known runner, Liang Jing, who had won a 100km race in Ningbo, reported the Paper, a state-backed newspaper based in Shanghai.
The race followed a relatively established course, having been held four times, according to an account posted online by a participant in the race who quit and managed to make his way to safety.
But the weather had caught them off guard, and on the morning of the race on Saturday, he already sensed things were not normal.
The runners were not dressed for winter-like conditions, many wearing short-sleeved tops.
“I ran two kilometres before the starting gun fired to warm up … but the troublesome thing was, after running these two kilometres, my body still had not heated up,” the competitor said in a first-person account that had been viewed more than 100,000 times on his WeChat account Wandering about the South.
The most difficult section, from mile 15 to mile 22, climbed 1,000 metres.
There, he said the path was just a mix of stones and sand, and his fingers grew numb from the cold.
When he finally decided to turn back, he already felt dazed.
He said he was able to make it to safety and met rescue crew. He did not respond to a request for comment left on his social media account.
Those farther along the path, who needed rescue, had fallen off deep into mountain crevices, according to a reporter for state broadcaster CCTV.
Video footage showed rescuers in winter jackets in the pitch dark night searching with flashlights along steep hills and narrow paths.
Baiyin city mayor Zhang Xuchen held a news conference later on Sunday and profoundly apologised as the organizer of the event.
“We express deep condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and the injured,” he said.
