At least three villages were levelled by an avalanche of mud and rocks triggered by heavy rains Saturday in a remote area of the northwest province of Gansu -- the latest deadly disaster as China battles widespread flooding.

A 52-year-old man was pulled alive from his toppled apartment building Tuesday, more than 50 hours after the disaster, and other rescue teams heard "very faint" signs of life in another area, the state news agency Xinhua said.

But the director of Gansu's civil affairs department, Tian Baozhong, painted a grim picture, telling reporters on August 10 that the death toll had more than doubled overnight while the number of missing had dropped only slightly to 1,042.

With rain forecast for the rest of the week, Premier Wen Jiabao urged the thousands of rescuers in hard-hit Zhouqu to hurry, but acknowledged the task would be an arduous one.

"We must fully realize the difficulties for the search and rescue work," Xinhua quoted Wen as saying. "You must race against the clock and spare no efforts in saving lives."

More than 7,000 soldiers and rescuers hunted around-the-clock for survivors in Zhouqu, the county seat, where homes were torn apart and streets buried in mud as deep as two metres (six feet).

AFP