CHENGDU (XINHUA) - Thirty people have gone missing while battling a forest fire in south-west China's Sichuan province, local authorities said on Monday (April 1).

They have been unaccounted for since Sunday afternoon after a sudden change in wind direction caused an outburst of the blaze, according to the authorities in Sichuan's Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.

Local authorities had dispatched 689 people to quench the blaze, which broke out at about 6pm last Saturday at a remote spot in the mountains at an altitude of about 3,800m.

A team sent by the Ministry of Emergency Management has arrived in Muli County in Liangshan to coordinate the rescue efforts.