13 dead, 13 missing as flooding hits central China regions

Heavy flooding in three central Chinese provinces has killed at least 13 people while 13 others are reported missing, China's state media says.

Heavy rains and floods started hitting Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan provinces, causing widespread damage, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

The agency said the natural disaster has disrupted the lives of approximately one million people in the affected regions.

Sichuan's Xuyong county was said to be the worst-hit area, where mud and debris filled the streets up to the second floor of some buildings, demolished dozens of homes and cut power and communications to the area.

Over 150,000 people were reportedly affected and nearly 10,000 evacuated only in the Hunan Province.

Meanwhile, in the Guizhou Province, thousands of citizens were moved to safety while more than 222,000 experienced other kinds of disruptions, including damage to crops and housing.

According to figures released by China's Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Wednesday, flooding in China has caused direct economic losses of 117.6 billion Chinese yuan (almost 18.40 billion dollars) in 2015 alone.

The figures also showed that floods and waterlogging have affected around 59.32 million people across the East Asian state.

Flooding is common in China in the summer rainy season. The country’s worst flooding in recent history happened in 1998, when at least 4,150 people lost their lives, most of them along Yangtze River.

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