Several killed in China rainstorms

Heavy rainstorms blamed for this week’s landslides in southern China have killed 55 people and left 14 others missing, Chinese authorities say.

At least nine provinces have had storms and some flooding and landslides since Tuesday, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs website said on its website on Saturday.

Ten provincial localities in south China have been affected including Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Sichuan, according to the China Daily. 

The newspaper reported that 1.59 million people had already been affected by the heavy rains in Hunan Province, where it said three people had been killed by Friday. 

The coastal Guangdong province has been hardest hit, with 36 deaths and 10 missing people, followed by Jiangxi province, where six people are reported dead and four more missing, the ministry said. 

Guangdong’s weather service forecasts more heavy rain along with thunder, strong wind gusts and hail in the coming days and warns of flooding and mudslides.

Disaster management and relief committees have been dispatched, the newspaper reported.