China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd has reopened the only road connecting the port city of Beira, in the central province of Sofala, with the rest of Mozambique, which had been cut 80 km from the city by the recent cyclone, Público reports.

The Portuguese newspaper says employees of the company worked around the clock for days, using tarmac from a nearby parking lot to divert the road around a 250 metre cleft carved out by a river swollen by rain carried by the storm.

The reopening of the N6 national road allows Beira to be supplied with essentials by road, the city having been accessible before only by air, Público says.

Separately, the Chinese government-run news agency, Xinhua, says a 65-stong mission sent to Mozambique by the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management has arrived, along with some 20 tonnes of equipment and materials for search-and-rescue work, for establishing communications and for giving medical treatment.