58 dead, 175 missing in southwest China floods

A total of 58 people died and 175 others went missing due to rainstorm-triggered floods and a landslide last week in southwest China's Sichuan Province, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. Among the death toll, a major landslide which hit a village in Dujiangyan City on July 10 left 44 people dead and 117 missing according to preliminary investigations, a senior official of the Sichuan Flood Prevention and Drought Relief Headquarters was quoted as saying. From July 7 to 12, rainstorms hit Sichuan, with accumulated precipitations of 800 mm to 1,151 mm in some areas, according to the report. Some 13,400 houses collapsed, 3.47 million people were affected and 300,000 people were relocated because of the downpours. As of Monday afternoon, the disasters had caused direct economic losses of CNY 20.2 billion (USD 3.3 billion). The province will see a new round of heavy rainfall in its western areas from Tuesday night to Thursday with precipitation of more than 300 mm, the provincial meteorological administration said. The administration has warned that there may be more natural disasters such as landslides, mud-rock flows and floods.