BEIJING (AFP) – Mountain floods in central China have killed four people and left one other missing, state media reported yesterday, with torrential downpours expected to continue across much of the country in the coming days.
Record rainfall of 337.8 millimetres (mm) early on Saturday morning at a town in hilly Hunan province led to “severe waterlogging”, state news agency Xinhua reported.
“As of Monday morning, four have been killed, with another missing.”
The report came after state media said on Sunday that heavy rains elsewhere in the province caused a landslide that ripped through village homes, killing eight people.
Continuous heavy rain is forecast until Thursday in several provinces across central, eastern and southern China, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said yesterday.
It also issued a red alert – its highest-level warning – that “extremely heavy rains” could occur in parts of Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces until 2pm today.
Such areas could see 250-270 mm of rainfall, the NMC said.
Following days of persistent rain in Huangshan, a popular tourist city, more than 54,000 people had been evacuated by mid-afternoon on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
