1.76 mn affected due to flooding in China's Shanxi; 17,000 houses collapse

Severe rainfall and flooding battered North China's Shanxi province, affecting more than 1.76 million people as of Sunday.

According to Chinese state media, a total of 1,20,100 have been relocated and 189,973 hectares of crops have been damaged.

Meanwhile, more than 17,000 houses were collapsed, Xinhua reported.

The province in the last few days has witnessed average precipitation of 185.6 mm.

In comparison, the average monthly precipitation of Taiyuan in October from 1981 to 2010 was around 25 mm.

Other cities like Linfen, Luliang and Xinzhou saw average precipitation of less than 50 mm in October in previous years.

Total casualties have not been released. According to reports, four traffic police officers died as a result of a landslide in Shanxi province on Tuesday.

The scope of flooding in Shanxi may have exceeded the devastating rainstorms in Central China's Henan Province in the summer which had killed more than 300 people as of early August but the impact is less so far, disaster relief experts said,

The China Meteorological Administration noted that the heavy precipitation, accumulated rainfall, its long and often heavy duration accompanied by thunder and lightning and strong convection of cooling, also caused difficulties for rescue efforts in Shanxi.