China Hit by Floods: Dozens Killed and Lakhs Displaced

File photo of rescuers carry a woman on a stretcher through a flooded area in Jiujiang in southern China. Picture for representation purposes only. 

(Photo: AP)

More than a dozen people died in the flooding in south and central China, reported The Guardian. Floods and mudslides caused nearly 2 lakh people to be relocated and destroyed more than 1,300 houses, said the report quoting official state news agency Xinhua.

In southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, six people were reported dead and one missing, Xinhua said.

According to Al Jazeera, Initial damage, including the destruction of more than 1,300 homes, was estimated at more than 500 million dollars.

Aerial photos published by the state-owned Xinhua news agency showed parts of the city of Guilin in Guangxi region under water.

According to a Reuters report, read water levels in 148 rivers in China have risen above warning thresholds with nationwide rainfall 6% higher than the average for the same period in previous years, Vice Minister of Water Resources Ye Jianchun told a news conference in Beijing,

China's worst floods in recent years were in 1998, when more than 2,000 people died and almost 3 million homes were destroyed.

News agency PTI reported that Chinese authorities have sought to reduce the hardship through the use of dams, particularly the massive Three Gorges structure on the Yangtze.