LHASA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- More than 80 vehicles have stranded on a highway by serious subsidence triggered by rainstorms in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

    The subsidence occurred at about 5:00 p.m. on Friday on nine kilometers of State Highway 318 that links Tibet with neighboring Sichuan Province, said sources with the traffic management arm of the People's Armed Police.

    More than 10,000 cubic meters of the highway bed had sunk in the Mangkam county in eastern Tibet's Qamdo prefecture.

    Repair work is expected to be finished in five days, said an armed police officer.

    Police have built a temporary road beside the highway, on which stranded vehicles are directed to pass slowly.