Laos Dam Collapses, Hundreds Missing

Hundreds of people in southern Laos are missing, and many are feared dead a day after a hydropower dam under construction broke, killing several as it swept away homes in flash flooding Tuesday.

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More than 6,600 people are homeless, the Lao News Agency reported. It showed pictures of villagers wading through muddy floodwater carrying belongings. Others boarded rickety wooden boats or stood on the roofs of partially submerged houses.

Officials have brought boats to evacuate people in San Sai district of Attapeu province, where the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam is located, as water levels rise after the collapse, ABC Laos news reported.

"The disaster has claimed several lives, left hundreds of people missing and more than 1,300 families (6,600 people) homeless," it said.

The South Korean company that has a stake in the project said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was cooperating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers near the site.

"We are running an emergency team and planning to help evacuate and rescue residents in villages near the dam," an SK Engineering & Construction spokesman told Reuters by telephone.

The $1 billion project was to build two dams with five auxiliary dams used to hold water beyond what is held by the main dams.

Another official of SK Engineering & Construction said the company ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as it became clear that the dam could collapse.

Later, the company said in a statement the upper part of the supply dam was lost by torrential rains on July 22 but its repair work did not go smoothly due to the, and more portions of the dam were fractured and overflowed in the following day.

The South Korean foreign ministry said in a text message to reporters that 50 workers of the company and three from Korea Western Power Co. who were stationed at the construction site had been evacuated.

The dam collapsed at 8:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) Monday, releasing 5 billion cubic meters of water and several hundred people are missing after homes were swept away, the Lao News Agency said. It said several people had died.

A video posted by the ABC Laos news on its Facebook page showed villagers stopping to watch the fast-flowing water from the side of a riverbank.

Another showed a distraught woman getting into a wooden boat with her baby, saying that she had to wait to be rescued after the floodwater came and her mother was still trapped in a tree.

The prime minister of the Southeast Asian nation, Thongloun Sisoulith, has suspended government meetings and led Cabinet members to monitor rescue and relief efforts in one of the affected areas, the state agency reported.