Another 74 people have died in floods across China bringing the death toll for the week to at least 156 in one of the deadliest rainy seasons in years, state media reported today.
The latest reported deaths from heavy rains that have spread misery across much of the country included dozens killed in recent days in the mountainous southwestern province of Yunnan, the Xinhua news agency said.
Torrential downpours in the region triggered mudslides, landslides and heavy flooding that also destroyed more than 4,000 homes and ravaged crops, it said.
Weeks of torrential rains in several provinces have made this year's summer rainy season one of the deadliest in years.
Meanwhile, flood-control officials in eastern Anhui province warned that water levels in the surging Huaihe River, China's third-longest, could remain dangerously high for at least another 10 days.
Dykes along the river have soaked for three weeks in the highest water levels since 1991, putting them at increased risk of breaching with more rain expected, Xinhua quoted officials as saying.
More than one million people have been evacuated in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces along the river's course, Xinhua said.
China's death toll from natural disasters this year topped 700 by mid-July, with about half the fatalities coming this month, and at least 129 missing, Xinhua said on Friday.
Millions have been evacuated or seen their homes flooded or destroyed.