A severe drought in southwestern China has claimed a new victim -- a runway at one of the region's busiest airports.

A plummeting water table, combined with an increasingly busy timetable of take-offs and landings, has led to the cracks at the only runway for Kunming airport in Yunnan province, the state news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday.

"The drought has been especially bad this year in Yunnan, with the water table falling, and the runway has reached its operating capacity, which has caused some cracks in the surface," airport deputy general manager Pu Shanlei told Xinhua.

The runway will now be closed for repairs from midnight to 7:30 am every day until at least some time next month, the report added.

The drought is the worst in Yunnan in six decades, and has affected 85 percent of the province's agricultural land.
 

Reuters