More than 50 people were returned to safety Tuesday following a five-hour operation to rescue them from an area hit by high winds in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.

Fifty-two passengers in 15 vehicles have stranded on the Maytas section of Provincial Highway 201 since noon Tuesday, with a snowstorm reducing visibility to zero, said Li Jie, vice director of the Emin county branch of the Tacheng traffic authority.

Rescuers closed the highway and began to reach the passengers around 4:45 p.m., rescuing all of the passengers and removing the vehicles by 9:30 p.m.