58 dead, 175 missing due to China floods

A total of 58 people died and 175 went missing due to rainstorm-triggered floods and landslide last week in China's Sichuan province, authorities said Tuesday.

According to preliminary investigations, the toll includes at least 44 people who died in a landslide which hit a village in Dujiangyan City, and 117 others went missing, reported Xinhua citing Tan Xiaoping, a senior provincial official linked to flood prevention.

Between July 7 and 12, rainstorms hit 43 counties in Sichuan province, with accumulated precipitations of 400 mm to 800 mm in Deyang and Dujiangyan, and 800 mm to 1,151 mm in some areas of the two cities, said Ma Li, deputy head of the Sichuan Provincial Meteorological Administration.

Some 13,400 houses collapsed, leaving 3.47 million people as affected. It forced 300,000 people to relocate due to the heavy rainfall.

As of Monday, the disasters had caused direct economic losses of 20.2 billion yuan (about $3.30 billion, the official added.

Authorities have warned that there may be more natural disasters such as landslides, mud-rock flows and floods.