At least 21 people died as heavy downpours struck central
China's Hubei
province, authorities said Friday, weeks after record floods wreaked havoc and
killed hundreds in a neighbouring province.
اضافة اعلان
China has been battered by unprecedented rains in recent months, extreme
weather that experts say is increasingly common due to
global warming.
In Hubei, torrential rains caused power cuts and landslides, destroying
hundreds of homes and forcing the evacuation of nearly 6,000 people, the
province's Emergency Management Bureau said, as reservoirs reach dangerous
levels.
"Twenty-one people were killed and four others are missing as heavy
rain lashed townships from Wednesday," state broadcaster Xinhua reported
Friday.
Footage showed families wading in water that had risen to almost hip level
and carrying essentials in plastic bags in Yicheng, which saw a record 480
millimetres (around 19 inches) of rain on Thursday. Rescuers carried people to
safety on bulldozers.
"Yesterday the water levels rose to about two to three metres. My
neighbour's house was completely destroyed," a resident from one of the
worst affected areas in the city of Suizhou told local media.
"We haven't seen so much rain in 20 or 30 years."
Hundreds of firefighters and thousands of police and military have been
dispatched to the worst affected areas, China's Ministry of Emergency
Management said.
Around 100,000 people were evacuated in the southwestern province of Sichuan
last weekend as heavy rains caused several landslides.
More than 300 people were killed in central China's Henan province last
month after record downpours dumped a year's worth of rain on a city in three
days.
China's Meteorological Administration warned that heavy rainfall was likely to
continue until next week, with regions along the Yangtze River, including
Shanghai, vulnerable to flooding.
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