65 dead, 1.6 million flee their homes following 2 weeks of rains in China

Floods and landslides have killed scores of people in China's central Hunan province as two weeks of torrential rains forced 1.6 million to flee, authorities said on Monday (Jul 10).

Some 53,000 homes have collapsed while nearly 350,000 others were seriously or partially damaged after 11 straight days of rain, Tang Biyu, deputy director of Hunan's civil affairs department told AFP.

At least 63 people were killed by landslides, the flow of debris or the collapse of homes, while 20 more are missing, Tang said in a statement, which put the damage bill at US$5.6 billion.

Authorities in the southern region of Guangxi last week reported that two dozen people had been killed or gone missing due to flooding, which also damaged thousands of houses.

In late June, a massive landslide buried a village in southwest Sichuan province, killing at least 10 and leaving 73 more missing.