A pivotal highway in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region reopened Saturday afternoon, approximately nine hours after a rain-triggered landslide disrupted traffic.

Traffic resumed on the highway linking Tibet with the neighboring Sichuan province at 4:20 p.m., after rescuers cleared all debris from the landslide that covered more than 30 meters of the road, said Li Xianghua, an armed police officer in Bomi county of Nyingchi prefecture.

The landslide occurred in the mountainous county at around 7:30 a.m. Saturday, trapping hundreds of people in 420 vehicles, Li said.

More than 20 armed police officers were mobilized to clear almost 2,800 cubic meters of debris with an excavator and two loading machines.

Li said they were watching out for more geological disasters, as the weather bureau has forecast continuous downpours for southeastern Tibet in the coming days.

The highway linking Tibet with Sichuan was for many years the only access to the plateau region. The Bomi section of the road is particularly risky with landslides, floods and mud-rock flows reported every year.

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