Workers check army trucks packed with cows yesterday ready to leave for Shanghai from a farm in Jiangsu Province, where two barns at the Shanghai Bright Dairy& Food's Farm collapsed due to snow.- Shanghai Daily

Shanghai Daily news

Armed police yesterday rushed to save hundreds of cows after two barns collapsed under the weight of snow at the Shanghai Bright Dairy & Food's farm near Wuxi City, in Jiangsu Province.

The farm, a major supplier of fresh dairy products to Shanghai, had two barns collapse early yesterday morning, killing a dozen cows and trapping more than 700 under the debris.

The police rushed to help extricate the cows and have them treated for injuries before another fall of snow was due. By noon yesterday more than 700 cows had been loaded onto 41 army trucks and transported to farms in the suburban Jinshan and Fengxian districts of Shanghai.

The number of stranded passengers waiting for rail connections dropped yesterday as more stations resumed selling tickets and more trains returned to operation.

The Shanghai Railway Station, the center that mostly offers trips to the north of the country, said yesterday most of passengers who had been stranded for days were able to leave as the weather remained clear. At the Shanghai South Railway Station, where most trains head south, the situation was not as bright with southern rail lines still experiencing problems.

The Shanghai Railway Administration yesterday said 21 lines, most heading for southeast regions of the country, were still out of service but railway traffic in Shanghai and neighboring provinces continued to improve.

Tickets for travel to Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan provinces and Chengdu and Chongqing cities were gradually becoming available again after being suspended.

The Shanghai Railway Station was looking a lot less crowded yesterday, a Shanghai Daily reporter found on a visit.

Only a few passengers were using the emergency shelters set up on the southern square.

Some rail tickets remained hard to obtain, however.

A migrant man named Gao looked frustrated after trying to buy tickets to his home in Chengdu.

"I come here early every morning and go back to my factory at night,'' he explained. "I've been waiting here for a ticket for four days and I just hope I have some luck.''

Air and coach service were also improving yesterday.

"We have resumed nearly 1,000 coach shuttles in the two days. I have never experienced an emergency like this since I started work on the buses in 1984,'' said a hoarse-voiced director assistant at the Shanghai Long-Distance General Station.