China warns of geological disasters as heavy rain batters

China has warned public of "relatively high risks" of geological disasters in parts of rain-battered Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, asking authorities to closely watch the bad weather and brace for any situations.
China's Meteorological Administration (CMA) forecast possible mountain torrents in parts of rainy Hebei Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province in the same period.
The administration asked local authorities to closely watch the bad weather and brace for any disasters, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Torrential rain has battered several provinces in China, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and causing heavy economic losses in the last few days.

In the central province of Hunan, days of heavy rain have affected about 500,000 residents in 25 counties, with about 18,000 evacuated and 4,000 in need of emergency supplies, the provincial flood and drought relief headquarters said.
The rainstorms have also damaged 46,000 hectares of crops.

In south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, two people have died and 290,000 people in 16 counties have been affected by heavy rain.
Rainstorms battered Guangxi's north and east, forcing more than 12,000 people to evacuate, according to the regional department of civil affairs.
The disaster has affected some 17,460 hectares of crops and toppled 610 houses, causing a direct economic loss of 470 million yuan (USD 72 million).

In the past a few days, torrential rains have battered several provinces in China, killing at least 10 persons and affecting some eight lakh others besides causing heavy economic losses and toppling hundreds of homes. The extremely rare round of heavy torrential rainfall was stated to be once in more than 200 years.