国官方媒体周日报道，国务院总理温家宝已飞往西部一处大规模泥石流的发生地。泥石流已造成至少127人死亡，1,000多人失踪，而此时暴雨仍在全国肆虐。
据新华社报道，暴雨导致白龙江江水溢出堤岸并引发泥石流，淹没了西北偏远省份甘肃下属舟曲县的建筑，造成近1,300人失踪。
约45,000人已被疏散，警察和军队被派往现场参与救援工作。新华社报道，有680多名居民已被当地居民救出。
新华社说，部分地区的淤泥深达两米，很多人被困于楼顶。
中国长期以来不断遭遇致人死命的洪灾，但今年的洪灾已造成的经济损失和人员死亡是10多年来最为严重的。
据党报《人民日报》上周四的一篇报道，今年已有28个省份遭遇洪灾，受灾人口达1.4亿，倒塌房屋110万间。
报道说，今年因灾死亡1,072人。这个数字并不包括周末泥石流中死亡的人数。
温 家宝飞往灾区，再次体现他在灾难时期代表中央政府亲临现场的作用。温家宝最广为人知的一幕，或许是他在2008年汶川地震过后动情地鼓励废墟下的学童坚持 住。从矿难到冰灾，他总是第一时间抵达灾难现场。在公众对官员们颇感失望之际，这有助于让国家的领导层显得更加亲民，更有同情心。
6月下旬，温家宝前往南部的广西，当时那里因洪灾而死亡的人数接近200人。
据新华社报道，温家宝和国家主席胡锦涛已指示甘肃省政府不遗余力地救援生者，关键基础设施要尽快修复，以保证救援行动更加有效。
白龙江流经甘肃南部，然后汇入长江。灾害发生地甘南藏族自治州位于甘肃西南部的青藏高原，主要是草原。
在近期的自然灾害中，中国西部偏远地区受灾严重。4月份，甘肃临省青海多为藏族人居住的玉树州发生大地震，2,000多人死亡。
到目前为止，今年因灾死亡人数远低于1998年。那一年长江流域发生50年来最严重的洪灾，造成4,150人死亡。
China's Premier Wen Jiabao flew to a part of western China where massive landslides have killed at least 127 people and left more than 1,000 missing, Chinese state media reported Sunday, as torrential rains continued to wreak havoc around the country.
According to reports from the Xinhua news agency, heavy rain caused the Bailong River to overflow its banks, triggering landslides that buried buildings in Zhouqu county in northwest China's remote Gansu province, leaving nearly 1,300 people unaccounted for.
About 45,000 people have been evacuated, and police and military forces were sent in to help with rescue efforts. More than 680 residents were rescued by local residents, Xinhua said.
Xinhua said that two-meter deep sludge in some areas had left many people trapped on top of buildings.
Deadly floods have long plagued China, but this year's floods have caused the most economic damage and loss of life in more than a decade.
According to a report Thursday in the People's Daily, the official publication of the Chinese Communist Party, 28 provinces have been hit by floods this year, affecting 140 million people and destroying 1.1 million homes.
It put the death toll at 1,072 for the year, excluding those who have died in the landslides over the weekend.
Mr. Wen's flight to the disaster area has him reprising his role as the face of Beijing's central government during times of catastrophe. Mr. Wen, perhaps most famous for his emotional appeal to school children trapped under the rubble of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to hold on, has arrived early at the scene of tragedies ranging from mining disasters to snowstorms, helping to make the country's leadership seem more accessible and compassionate amid much public disillusionment with China's officials.
In late June, Mr. Wen went to southern China's Guangxi province when the death toll from the floods was nearing 200.
According to Xinhua, Mr. Wen and President Hu Jintao have instructed the government in Gansu to spare no effort to save lives, and that key infrastructure should be repaired quickly to ensure a more effective rescue effort.
The Bailong River runs south through Gansu province before linking up with the Yangtze River. Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where the disaster struck, is located on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau in southwest Gansu and is predominantly grasslands.
China's far-flung western regions have been hard hit with natural disasters recently. In April, more than 2,000 people died in a major earthquake in the predominantly Tibetan Yushu prefecture in neighboring Qinghai province.
So far, this year's death toll is well below the 4,150 that died in 1998 when the worst floods in five decades tore through the Yangtze River basin.