Beijing, June 25: Eighteen people died after rainstorms slammed central China's Hubei and Sichuan provinces for five continuous days, a local official said today. "So far 14 people have died in the storm, with six people being swept into a river by the torrential rains," an official named Liu at the disaster relief section of the Hubei Civil Affairs Bureau told a news agency. Rains began falling on June 20, with the worst downpour occurring in the northern mountainous part of the province where some counties were receiving over 100 millimeters a day.
The Xinhua news agency said that over 3.2 million people were affected by the rain, while 1.1 million were facing "disaster."


"So far no big disasters have happened during the last few rainy days, but some mishaps have occurred like six people being swept into a river in Xiangfan City," he said.
In neighbouring Sichuan province, four people were killed in a landslide caused by three days of torrential rain in Hejiang county along the Yangtze river, Xinhua said in a separate report.

Bureau Report