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Storms and downpours sweep China, killing at least 50

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-09 17:18

TAIYUAN -- One person was killed in north China's Shanxi province, bringing the death toll of rains and storms since last Wednesday to 50, according to officials on Monday.

A local resident looks at tree branches destroyed by wind and rainfall at a park in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui province, June 8, 2009.[Xinhua]

A 17-year-old girl was killed on Sunday evening, when a landslide hit the Xiaofu Village of Jichang Township in Shanxi. Villagers there live in traditional cave houses, and the girl was killed as she was escaping, said an official with the Jixian County weather bureau. Other dwellers were evacuated. The rainfall total reached 81.8 millimeters, said the official.

Storms hit Shanxi from last Wednesday, where maximum wind speed reached 27.5 meters per second in Yuncheng in southern Shanxi.

A local resident looks at tree branches broken by wind and rainfall at a park in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui province, June 8, 2009. [Xinhua]

In the Lingqiu county of Datong city, thunderstorm and hail damaged 32,588 houses and about 8,436.3 hectares of crops.

Related readings:  Storm kills 22 in China, 117 injured  Storm leaves 22 dead in central China  Storm turns deadly in Central China

The disaster relief office in eastern Anhui Province said 21 people were killed by falling trees, collapsed roofs or shipwreck. Four were missing and 215 others were injured.

The storms also destroyed 15,700 houses and damaged 90,400 others, which led to the relocation of about 7,000 people to the homes of relatives or friends. Crops on 205,400 hectares of farmland were damaged, according to the office.

The civil affair department in central Henan Province reported four more deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 24.

Shandong and Jiangsu provinces were also hit by the storm from last Wednesday, but casualties are not clear yet.

In the southwestern Guizhou province, torrential rain since Sunday triggered a landslide, killing four people in the Daozhen county of Zunyi city, where the rainfall total reached 84.4 millimeters, and injuring another one. A total of 669 houses were damaged, among which 30 collapsed.

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